*If you’re reading this to find out how to follow along on my van trip, scroll to the bottom for the link*
The countdown to the van trip is on.
Launch day is fast approaching, with less than 6 weeks to go (37 days, to be exact.)
It’s no small task, to pack up a life and fit it into a vehicle. I’ve lived in my apartment for three years this March and I’ve gotten comfortable. The idea of removing the art I so carefully selected from the walls, wrapping it, and packing it down into boxes is hard. To see these walls become (off)white again, a blank canvas for the next resident, is emotional.
A task this large is best broken into small pieces, so my last few weekends have been spent slowly chipping away at my to-do list. The basement needs to be vacuumed, boxes must be stored, and the most important pieces of my life set aside to fit in a handful of cabinets and bins. Sometimes it feels like I won’t make it to d-day with so much to do, though this is just my anxiety.
It’s a lot of change at once, and I know from the test trip my husband and I took in November that it will be a big adjustment. It’s not just that my living situation is changing – it’s every piece of my life. There will be no more moving from room to room to brush my teeth, start the coffee, make the bed. Everything is right there in your face – or hidden away. And it turns out, hiding some pieces away makes it hard to keep to normal routines.
The van takes away all of my systems and processes, even the ones that guide my feet to the floor in the morning. If my toothbrush isn’t out in plain sight, it’s easy to forget to brush. If deodorant is shoved in a bag and tossed in a cabinet, it’s easy to go without.
None of this is good; forgetting daily hygiene tasks is a flashing red indicator that something is wrong. But it made for a curious meditation on how easy it is for our daily routines to break down in new environments. It highlighted two things to me: the importance of sticking to a routine, and how absolutely crucial the right organization system is. Both are also challenging.
This will be quite the adventure, and I’ve come to find adventure to be one of those adjectives I classify alongside “interesting”, with an inherent meaning neither positive nor negative and usable to describe a wide range of situations. But to call it an interesting adventure would be redundant; interesting is inherent in adventure, as is excitement, turbulence, and change. Thus, the van adventure draws near.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions regarding and interest in following along with the van adventures, and I am humbled by how many people want to follow along. You can do so in a few ways; on this blog where I will continue to journal when the mood strike and share certain hikes and rucks, on my Instagram where I’ll share photos and videos of the adventure, or on my YouTube channels where I’ll be filming from whatever vista we’re parked by.
OR you could make it really easy for yourself, and join my newsletter where I’ll share all of that in one place (that place being the top of your inbox.) 😊Use the link above or the form below.
Thanks for following along!