Have you looked at the carefully curated pictures on Instagram and wondered how you can get in on the vanlife? Have you imagined yourself in a minimalist rig staying in picturesque places living a calm and easy life?
Did you read the posts like mine about how #vanlife is a facade for a life that sometimes involves sleeping in Walmart parking lots and showering at truck stops? Did that crush your dream and make you give up the notion of traveling altogether because there’s no way you could live like that?
Nomadic life isn’t for everyone. It’s not an easy way to live. It involves sacrifices different from the ones you make in a traditional living situation.
However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do some nomadic traveling. There’s no law that says you have to full time or that you have to do it permanently. There is a lot of value in even a temporary nomadic existence.
There are three key ways that I have benefitted from my vanlife that I don’t believe require me to live this way for the rest of my life. I’ve only been at it barely three months and I’ve already seen these areas grow.
Confidence
Traveling alone means relying on myself at the end of the day.
I have gotten loads of amazing advice and guidance that I couldn’t have done this without. My friends help me get through the times when I feel unbearably lonely.
However, I’m the one who has to find a campsite, deal with unwanted neighbors, troubleshoot my van, decide where to go next, get myself unlost when I make a wrong turn, navigate when I have no internet signal. So many of these are the same kinds of things you’d do anywhere, but I am alone out here. I can’t call my friend or family members over if I don’t want to deal with it.
It’s all on me and it’s caused me to rise to the occasion.
I have to deal with my own mind as well. My insecurity and anxiety can’t hide behind easy fixes anymore. There isn’t anyone else here to act as a distraction. I’ve gained the confidence to deal with my own demons and manage them.
Flexibility
My plans changed so much when I first got started. I got lost on my way to my very first real campsite in the middle of the night where I had no cell service. I had to adapt. I had to leave that campsite early after a freak cold snap. Then I had to leave my next campsite due to flooding.
I was but a leaf on the wind it seemed. No matter what my plan was, something came along to thwart me and force me to regroup.
I am a planner by nature, so this was not a process I enjoyed. But along with the confidence I was gaining, I adapted to be more flexible in my planning to encompass the possibility of unexpected complications. Living in a vehicle is, by its nature, transitory. Being able to adapt to changing circumstances is supposed to be an upside.
I’ve been able to better accept that reality and let go of my desire to have set plans in place for everything.
Memories
Four months would have flown by in my old life. Days bled one into the other, a dull sameness that fed my depression.
Now it’s hard to believe sometimes that it has only been three months. I’ve been to so many places, seen friends and met new ones, and had exhilarating experiences. Time is passing so much more slowly because I’m stuffing more into each day.
I have memories now that I would never have had otherwise. No matter how long I do this, those memories will always be mine.
So Get Out There
Take a trip, take lots of them. Camp in your car and travel somewhere beautiful. Not every step on your path has to be permanent. Sometimes the next thing we do is just the next thing. You don’t have to uproot your whole life the way I did to find value in traveling and living part of the time on the road.
Take a road trip. See somewhere new. Find yourself. Make memories.
