Why Van Life
When I tell people, I am choosing to be homeless after I graduate college, they look at me like I’m nuts. Essentially, Van Life is choosing to be homeless so that you can be free, a nomadic movement. I have explained my dream time and time again. I remember the last time I spoke to a friend about it, I said,
“I’m going to build a conversion van and travel the world.”
and he said, “No, you’re not.”
I use these words as fuel to my flame. The driving passion I have to live my life to the fullest. I refuse to lay on my death bed with any regrets of what I did or did not do. I refuse to live the normal, conventional life that millions are bored with. A life of 9–5 and go, go, go. A life of making house payments, only to be at work for a majority of your time. A life of over-exhaustion and unfulfilled dreams.
No. I refuse.
I will travel the world and see everything there is to see. I will pursue a life that will make me genuinely happy and grateful to be alive, and that life does not involve a kitchen table or a half-hour commute to work every-morning.
It will be the drive of a life time, and when I have finished with my journey across North America, I will travel south, east, and west. To every continent, experiencing hundreds of different cultures, languages, and customs. I will live the life of my dreams, Van Life.
Will it be scary?
Hell yes.
But where will you shower?
I will buy a gym membership and use public facilities.
Where will you use the restroom?
There are gas station on every corner in cities, and if worse comes to worst, grab a shovel.
Where will you prepare meals?
All part of the van conversion, baby. Van conversions come in many shapes and sizes. Some Van Lifers even raise families in Vans. A camp stove and a solar fridge aren’t too terrible to install to create a mini kitchen unit.
How will you receive mail?
I’ll buy a P.O. box. Simple as that. My work, as a graphic designer, will be completely online allowing my home to be mobile and my life experiences to be broadened.
What will you do in the winter?
Travel someplace warm. Duh.
How could you be so naïve?
So maybe I am. So maybe I have a dream that I have wanted to pursue my entire adult life, and I have decided instead of passing it off and saying, “That will never happen,” I am chasing my fantasy and putting it into existence.
It will be a difficult life to live. It’s not at all convenient or conventional, but it’s my life.
Now I ask you, what’s your biggest dream? Your biggest fear?
Lucky for me, one of my biggest fears is driving. Sometimes you have to overcome your fears in order to achieve your goals, and it can be the most rewarding thing you ever do.
Think about it. If you had the chance to make a wish, what would it be? What are your biggest goals and dreams?
Mine, along with many others, is to travel. To see the world and experience everything I possibly can in the short time I have on this earth.
I want to experience it all, and if a giving up a flushing toilet is the sacrifice I have to make, then god damn it, hand me a shovel!
