Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live a completely different life from what you have today? Daydreaming about waking up in a new place with a new routine?
What if you could test drive that other life?
Lately I have been completely obsessed with #vanlife. Seeing something new every day, overcoming the challenges that inevitably arise while constantly traveling, meeting strangers who prove time and again that humans are inherently good, living simply...I don't know when, but someday I'll do it for real. But for now, at least it's possible to test drive van life (yay puns)! Thanks to companies like Jucy, renting a campervan and testing out life on the road is pretty darn simple.
Jucy keys in hand, us five young twenty-somethings rolled along between Sequoia, Yosemite, and Joshua Tree national parks for 9 days in March. We saw the world's largest tree (by volume), met a real van-lifer, hiked to one of the world's tallest waterfalls, frolicked in a poppy superbloom, and camped under the stars in the desert.
There's something about nomadic living that calms the worried planner in me. I have this fear that I'll visit an incredible place and waste my opportunity to see the best it has to offer, which isn't totally unfounded because things tend to go awry while traveling. For example, we visited Yosemite and Sequoia during the off-season, which meant fewer crowds, but also that large portions of the park were completely closed due to snow. In my everyday life, I would feel frustrated, disappointed, and like I was missing out, but I realized on this trip I was simply feeling grateful for the experiences we could have in the parks.
What if I chose to see things that way everyday? What if I stopped worrying that I wasn't using my precious free time the 'right' way? What if I was grateful for each day, just as it is? I won't stop being a planner (nor do I want to), but weaving some nomadic contentment into my daily perspective would give me better peace of mind when my day takes a detour. The test drive is over, but the adventure lives on.
