There are so many paths that we could take, so many decisions to make. What kind of future do we want for ourselves and our TinyHuman?
For anyone who reads my blogs, you’ll know that I was referred to the Breast Clinic due to having some swelling and pain in one of my breasts. It was terrifying. As a girl, as soon as you begin to develop breasts they preach and preach about checking your breasts and all the dangers and scary things that could happen if you don’t.
The referral takes a couple of weeks to come through and you’re stuck. Waiting. Thinking. All of those ‘what ifs’. I was extremely lucky, just a cheeky little hormone imbalance. Nothing to worry about. But that doesn’t negate all of the worry I had. All of those things I decided I wanted to do before my time comes.
I don’t want to grow old having just survived this existence, I want us to have lived a life that we truly loved and are so proud of.
So now, we make our future what we want it to be.
There are many things that I’ve always wanted to do but was never sure that I could, for a variety of reasons. Some of those things I change my mind on, some I talk myself out of completely. Some reoccur and never truly leave me. One that I always come back too… is van life.
I wanna buy a van, do it up, sell all of my belongings, hop in and set off- see where that life takes me. What that particular future might hold for me.
But, I’ve always found a reason not too. The boy in my life didn’t want too. It’s too scary to go it alone. I can’t afford to buy and convert a van. It’s not the done thing.
Slowly that is changing…
I am married to a man who is willing to hear me out before he gives me a hard no. At first The Man really wasn’t sure about the idea of living in a van, that was a lot of change to consider. He asked questions, so many questions, how would this work and how would that work?
We’ve done research. We’ve googled 100 different things, we’ve followed instagram accounts and watched YouTube videos. People who do vanlife alone. People who do vanlife with kids. People who do vanlife with dogs. Those who stay in the UK. Those who travel Europe.
Is this the future for us?
I certainly think so, The Man is still mulling it over and slowly coming around to the idea. The Man’s autism makes it harder for him to process the idea of big life changes like these. That’s okay though, if we go for this then it wont be an immediate thing. These types of changes take time for anyone who’s doing it, we’d be doing it with an autistic adult and autistic toddler.
We want to do this while TinyHuman is still little, we want him to grow up exploring the world and falling in love with it as we have. We want to give him the most magical childhood that we possibly can.
We’re such outdoorsy people, we spend every possible minute outside. We go for walks, we have picnics, we play at the park and on the beach. We jump in puddles, paddle in streams and swim in the ocean. On days that we’re stuck inside or unable to go on an adventure for whatever reason, we get itchy.
TinyHuman doesn’t know what to do with himself, The Man and I will get ansy- arguing with each other over the most stupid of things. We just don’t cope with it well. We were born to be out and about- adventuring and having fun.
What else will our future hold?
There’s more reasons that moving into a van makes sense for us, it’s not just about our wanderlust and desire to be outdoors.
I moved out at 18 and have been renting properties since then. Over the last 7 years I have paid thousands of pounds towards other people’s mortgages, while never being able to get my own because there just wasn’t enough left over at the end of the month to save for a deposit.
I knew when I had a baby that I wanted us to buy a home, somewhere that our child can have a future. Somewhere that is our own, some stability. A home that no one is going to sell out from underneath us. A nice house, modest enough for us to live a good life, with a nice garden space for the dogs and TinyHuman to run around and wreak havoc.
So, that is the goal.
We will buy and convert a van. We will live in it. We will raise our son in it. We’ll have adventures and make memories. There will be highs and lows, there will be love and laughter.
While we do that, we will save as much money as we can. We’ll put it all aside, gradually building enough of a savings nest egg to invest in our future forever home. A place that is our very own.
If all goes to plan, although sure it often doesn’t… that is what our future holds for us.
