About Me — Ija Mei*

Lady who lives in a van, exmormon, primitive skills and outdoor survival enthusiast, cautionary tale. Also, *not my real name.

When you’re exploring Angkor Wat but need to get some editing work done.

• Where are you from?

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area but have since spent the bulk of my adult life outside the US. Now, in Covid times, I live everywhere, in a van. You can usually find me somewhere between Cabo San Lucas, Seattle, Kalispell and Yuma.

I’m equipped to be out in the wild for 2 weeks or so at a time, longer if I have a water source (rain or a river). I duck into civilization when I have to, and pretty much hate it every time. The discomforts of vanlife are the entrance fee I pay for time in nature.

• What do you do for a living?

I’ve been editing (mostly academic journal articles) and writing (mostly glorified book reports for a subscription-based summary service) for a living for about a decade, but I barely make any money, because I barely work. I’ve always lambasted myself for being lazy, but recently my lovely therapist (really, she’s wonderful) suggested it might be a symptom of CPTSD. I don’t know what to make of that quite yet.

I’m pretty broke, but really free, and I mostly like it.