12 July, 2019

Why the car camper?

I understand that camping is not for everybody. And a dream of living in a camper van/RV one day may seem completely nuts to some. Something I want might seem awful to you. Something you want might be an anxious nightmare for me. It's actually quite fascinating how different one person is from another. But that's not the point of this post.
Today I wanted to share the main reasons we as a family converted our car into a camper and are aiming at having a van/trailer/RV someday.
 

You get to visit places without worrying about booking anything.

Laziness is a serious struggle of mine. It might be just as bad as my social anxiety. Two of these things combined make for a perfect excuse to do nothing. Need to go online and check a bunch of hotels to pick the very one that's affordable, decent and has a favourable location? Nah, I'm too lazy for that. Need to call/email to confirm something? No way, that's an instant panic attack. It's almost too easy to stay in your comfort zone and believe that you're just fine.
Camper changes all of that. Wanna go to Vegas for the weekend? Hop in the car and start driving. Hungry? Petrol stations have excellent snacks. Tired? Most forests/parks/24-hour parking lots will do for the night. You are in control of everything. Made it halfway and changed your mind about the destination? Ditch the old plan and make a new one.
It gives you incredible freedom and a chance to see hidden places and paths not usually taken.
The travelling community is warm and inspiring.
 
Campers, travellers and couchsurfers are pretty much all amazing people. They've got incredible stories up their sleeves, unique tips and hacks that they're happy to share, new perspectives and open minds. Being around them is a true joy.
On our camping journey, we've met some of the coolest people, incredible rangers and kind strangers. We've made some of the most fulfilling friendships through Couchsurfing and have kept in touch with most of those people after knowing them for 24-48 hours. They are like a distant part of our family.
It gives us the freedom to travel before our daughter goes to school.
 
Our family and friends are scattered all over this world and visiting them is always an adventure, but we can't buy tickets to other continents multiple times a year (not even every year, in fact) and the urge to see new places is strong. Car camping is a great way to have little adventures every once in a while when life starts to seem boring and redundant. It's cheaper than staying in hotels and booking flights. It's also a great way to expose our 3-year old to diverse people, places and situations. It's the easiest way to show them the importance of kindness, compassion and empathy for the world and everyone in it.
Quality family time.
 
Staying at home and doing the exact same thing every day and every week can be harmful to your mental health and your relationships (my subjective opinion, don't take it as a fact). Going on a road trip, making a day out of convenient store food and coffee, singing Beatles on the top of our lungs and spending a night in nature with no signal provides easy opportunities for bonding family time. Nothing distracts you from one another, no work calls, no old stress factors. You are here and now, and for a brief moment nothing else exists in the world.
Change of routine. 
 
I already mentioned that routines (in my opinion) ruin mental health, relationships and the drive to be adventurous and spontaneous. You have been a victim of your routines if you feel that everything you do is boring and kind of pointless, if you don't enjoy anything in your day, if the sparks are gone and you can feel the time running past you, ageing you with every lost second of it. If you used to have fun with your friends/partner and it used to be just like a breath of fresh air but now became something that's a chore. If you'd rather be anywhere other than your house, your job or your skin. Believe me, when I say, you need to change something in your life. It doesn't have to be grand, you don't have to burn your old life and start fresh, you don't need to run from anything. All you need to do is embrace what you've got and re-vamp it. If you have time to see another place, do it. Another country, another city, a part of your town you've never been to - literally, anything new. Change your days. If on a Friday night you and your partner used to order pizza and watch TV until you both pass out, then just go for that pizza and find a park/river/row of stairs to sit on and eat it there. Look around you, embrace the beauty and the awkwardness of our society. Watch the sunset. Go outside in the rain and just jump in the puddle. Or run. Or wrestle. Force yourself to react differently to a thing that you always react to the same way. Say yes when you would say no. Say no when you would say yes. Get out there. The world is full of incredible things and they are right under your nose, waiting to be discovered.
If you have been thinking of camping, do it. If you are considering getting a camper, do it. Try it. Even if it doesn't work out, it'll take you somewhere new.
It's inspiring. 

My husband and I are both very creative people. It can be the most beautiful and exciting thing or it could be crippling if you happen to be unimpressed and uninspired. I always write. I write for my blog, I write my own stories for me and I write other stories that someday I hope will be for others to read. If I can't write, I feel dead inside. I feel like a part of me is missing, the very one that makes me who I am. I feel like I failed. I feel useless without my words. And I'm already a very anxious person so if you add to that, it becomes a dark pit that's near impossible to escape on your own.
Camping changes that. Travelling changes that. Change of routine changes that. It gives us new perspectives, it gives us the spark, it inspires beyond belief.
You have less stuff. You know what's really necessary.
 
Humans love to cling on to things. Myself included. It's very comforting to keep everything you ever owned "just in case". But it can clutter your living space and mess with your life. One of the most repeated pieces of advice you'll find after searching how to study more efficiently or be more productive would be "clean your workspace" or "tidy up your house". There is a good reason for this. If your home is cluttered, you'll feel suffocated. Of course, when your environment is not healthy, your productivity and creativity suffer.
Making a camper has been a great experience for us. Sorting through everything you have is hard, but in the end, when you're left with the essentials, it feels like you've let go of a heavy weight. Now your belongings fit in your car and you know that that's all you really need in this world. You start forming connections with people instead of things
Simple lifestyle. Simple happiness.
 
Similar to the previous point, this is an appreciation for the humble set of mind. Being able to enjoy the little things, seeing the beauty in nature, feeling fulfilled with strong relationships and meaningful friendships instead of materialistic stuff. The things that make us happy are incredibly simple and widely accessible if only we knew where to look. There is no shortage of beauty and purpose out there. However, it can be hard to spot when everyone around tells you that the only road to happiness and success is the one that everyone takes. Except the majority of people are not actually happy with what they've got. So don't listen to what everybody is doing. Do your own thing.
And, finally, the last reason is the ability to convert, design, replace and improve essentially everything.
 
Making a camper car can be stressful and exhausting, but in the end, there is so much room for customization, creativity, cleverness and personality. You can make it into whatever you want. You can paint it a crazy colour. You can replace the whole row of seats with a bed or a bar or a mini art studio. You can literally make your own little world inside your car/van.

This is all that I can think of at the moment. In the end, you could probably sum it up by saying that we wanted a camper car to be able to be spontaneous. I really hope that I've inspired you to at least ease up on yourself a little. Concrete plans can be comforting, but the world is unpredictable so don't rely on them too much.
Be happy.
And have a great day.

1 comment:

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