Van Life
These last couple of years (during two Covid lockdowns) I have been thinking about so many things like where is it that I want to be? who do I want to be? why am I here? and what is my life’s purpose. One of the things that I have been dwelling on was my living situation and I have concluded that I will never be able to own my own home, well not in Sydney anyway. I have always told myself that I would never get myself into a mortgage, that I wanted to be a free spirit and not have to owe money to the banks for the rest of my life.
Well moving forward to now, owning your own home is not such a bad idea, but the average homeowner is a married couple or very smart people who know how the property market works, and that was not me.
Ever since I moved out of home at a very young age of sixteen, I never stay in the one place for very long. I remember one time I counted the amount times I had moved house and back then I did not know it, but now I can see the pattern. I have lived with so many people in share accommodation, with partners and best friends, then finally I was able to afford to have my very own place, but still renting, of course.
I have always tried to avoid paying high rent. What a waste of money, but if you are in the same position as I am, and I know there are many of us, owning a home is far out of our reach.
In 2018 when we had the first Covid lockdown, not much changed for me. I work from home already, so I did not need to go out to work and going to the local shopping centre to buy grocery, I would always clean the handle of the trolley or the basket so that was not new to me. I was just happy that everybody else was doing the same.
To be honest, I really enjoyed the lockdown, I know that sounds crazy, but it gave me time to catch up on so many things. One of those things was watching loads of movies and many hours spent on You Tube.
It was during this time that I found myself watching a lot of Van life clips. A good friend of mine lives this lifestyle. I saw how they completely transformed their empty van to a fully functionally home on wheels. I must admit, I was very impressed. This is when I started thinking on whether I could live this lifestyle. I mean, I already know that I will never be able to afford to buy a house, though the bank will never give me a loan anyway, but do I still want my own house? Or could I see myself living in a nice big van and just traveling to places and not have to stay in the one place for two long. Now, that sounds appealing, I must admit.
So, the more I watch and learned about the Vanlife, the more fascinated I was. The one thing that I keep asking myself is, What about my work? How do I take that with me? So, I have decided that I will not jump into it too quickly and I think the best option for me is to first hire a van and take it from there. I will let you know how I go but I really want to mention two people who live this lifestyle.
Check out Tamsun from Destination Sacred Grounds. Her van is Kalypso, and her traveling companion is Kali the cat. Please check out her channel HERE
