The Van Man
Rather listen to this blog post instead?
A Vignette of #VanLife with Kevin
During my latest snowbird road trip to Portland, OR to escape the summer heat of Phoenix, AZ, I met a man.
This man lived in a van.
I had just driven my car through a redwood at Drive-Thru Tree Park (aptly named) and had parked to relieve myself and stretch my legs. As I moseyed into the nearby meadow, I noticed a man and two dogs walking towards me.
He noticed my noticing and nodded a salutation.
I nodded back, “Beautiful beasts you’ve got there.”
“Wanna meet ‘em?” He called back.
“Sure!”
I was introduced (wetly and face first) to Barrett, a massive German Shepherd pup with paws like fuzzy cow paddies, and next (much more gingerly and gently) to Bella, a slightly bigger, beautiful and blindingly-snow-white…other kind of dog.
And I met Kevin.
Who is Kevin, and What is Nomoc?
For the past year, Kevin has been traveling with his two dogs enjoying life on the open road. He’s also been living full time in a custom van he built out himself (his 2nd in fact). He’s been documenting his new (and globally trending) way of life via weekly #VanLife vlogs on his YouTube channel “The Nomoc Experience".
“Nomoc” is a self-coined acronym standing for “No More Organized Chaos”. This is the battle cry for the life decision Kevin made a year ago when he decided to quit his job, sell his car, move out of his house, and hit the road.
Organized Chaos vs. Intentional Lifestyle
Kevin is not the first to spark the fuse of the “normal life” and detonate the white picket fence, but he is certainly among the few who have actually followed through pulling this precise plug. Legions more march lemmingly all the way to their death beds having lived safely. Perhaps a brief but powerful torrent of guilt floods past their eyes right before the end, but then the end comes, and everything is washed away.
If I had to guess, Kevin was probably pretty opposed to this sort of end of life guilt storm, and hence, the preceding middle part of life. His life of “organized chaos” working as an Electrical Engineer, making gobs of money, and buying all the things you always knew you needed (until you had them) began to make less and less sense as the years passed by.
It’s not a new story: “Wait…I make all this money, but it’s all spent maintaining the making of the money itself? I buy a house so I can sleep in it for eight hours when I’m not working to pay for the house. I buy a car to get me to the place I make the money needed to buy the car. I spend money on the right clothes, so they let me in the building that I work in to make the money to buy the needed clothes.”
Scary cycle…
Intermission: and a Disclaimer
Let me pause the narrative for a minute; I personally don’t think a conventional career and lifestyle is one big lie-loop that we’re all suckers for getting sucked into. There are many worthy paths that simply require a grand weekly time commitment, the proper pomp, circumstance, and attire for path progress, and a decent amount of self-sacrifice.
But! If you have never looked at your situation and critically wondered about it just a little, you’re hurting yourself. How badly, I can’t say, but you’ll likely find out on your death bed ;-)
So, as you read the rest of this post, know this is simply a critical examination of an unconventional lifestyle. Not necessarily an argument FOR it, but a contrasting example of what a different kind of life-well-lived could look like.
Ok, back to it…
Could I Do This? Live in a Van?
So, Kevin hit the eject button and aborted his old life. I won’t go into his journey’s specifics, as it has already been expertly captured in The Nomoc Experience. In short, he built out a custom van, documents the whole thing on video, narrates it EXPERTLY, and makes enough o’ that YouTube money (via various monetization methods) to live free and low key on the road.
Most honorably, once he hits his predetermined income target, he forwards along the donations to charitable causes. He knows what he needs, and is in no rush to complicate his life once again with consumerist woes.
The details of the story are pretty neat. I recommend watching from the beginning. The ever expanding narrative is quite exhilarating!
So exhilarating in fact, that by the time my face had dried of Barrett slobber and I’d finished chatting with Kevin in the meadow, I was doing my own math.
Could I do this too?
I’d given him the rundown of my multimedia self and he ate it up. He wouldn’t let me off the hook: “DUDE! You have everything it takes to do exactly what I’m doing! All the skills: video, storytelling, school bus driving experience, man bun…EVERYTHING!”
He’s not wrong. My man bun game is strong right now.
So here I sit, in the same boat as many: knowing I could, but not necessarily sure if I should.
Or maybe, knowing I could AND probably should…but not sure I can muster the will.
Decisions, decisions, decisions ;-)
Your Turn:
How do you feel about #VanLife? Thought much about it? Love the idea but could never actually do it? Why? Are all the nomads crazy? Share with us in the comments!
