Ok lets be honest here. The last 12 months has been pretty fucking shit hasnt it, pardon my French. But it has. Like, properly shit. I don't think it's been particularly fun for anyone, regardless of their normal lifestyle and personal background - but spending a full year of being severely restricted on whom you can see socially, when, and where, has taken its toll on peoples emotional well-being and mental state. A very common theme amongst "Vanlifers" is the sense of isolation and loneliness that comes with the fluid life on 4 wheels. Week in, week out, I see posts from people reaching out for company, both physically and virtually, as cabin fever kicks in. It's very evident that people are struggling.
I don't particularly include myself in that statement, for a few reasons really, which actually make me feel quite fortunate. Firstly, and without meaning to come across as as a smug dickhead here; I chose this lifestyle, as a conscious decision of something I wanted to do as a personal adventure and change of direction, for many reasons, but the fact is I want to live like I do, and I've embraced not only the positives of #vanlife, but the negatives too - but I must remember that not everybody did. A lot of people live in vans for reasons outside of their immediate control, it's where they have found themselves as a result of external factors and not necessarily by personal choice, and those people perhaps may not be as comfortable with the sense of isolation as others, so I won't go as far as to say that feeling isolated doesn't apply to me, but I chose this.
Secondly, the last 12 months hasn't impacted me as hard as it had for a lot of people - in the sense that it hasn't interfered with my day-to-day life all that much. I've still worked, and the work I do involves traveling around, meeting people, occasionally working directly with them, and sometimes hanging out with them socially out of hours too - I'm very lucky that the work I do quite often comes with the bonus of staying on private property, either parking up on their land or having a vacant house to myself, so I can get off the road and not have to look over my shoulder for passing police cars or vigilante pitchfork-weilding locals taking it upon themselves to "police" the parkups for day-trippers and weekend-warriors.
Lastly, and somewhat self-assuredly, I maintain that I am my own best company, loneliness is not something I often find myself feeling - I am horrendously introverted, bordering hermit level, with social anxiety which I mask with a verneer of extroverted outbursts, which is to say I can be sociable and outgoing in doses, but I need my small quiet space and a nap afterwards. I do have a pretty wide but distant social circle and do keep in touch with my friends daily via messenger platforms and social media, and for the most part that is ample human contact for me. Plus, I have Sanchez, who I couldn't do this without.
Now, I never started this to be part of any sort of scene - I didn't even know there was a scene, and usually I'm very anti-scene - not in an elitist-douchebag hipster too-cool sense, just, I'm not generally interested in being part of any sort of club in which I identify myself by. I certainly didn't move into a van to make friends with other people who live in vans. This isn't a hobby for me, it's how I live. But, unintentionally, I have picked up a few friends along the way over the last (counts fingers) 16 months of life on the road, people I've met up and hung out with, or just chatted to and engaged with frequently online. As much as I may maintain that I don't need other people to assure my sense of self-dependency, is has been comforting to have a group of people whom I have a very significant aspect of lifestyle in common with, and they've become quite important to me - if only for the in-jokes and bants if nothing else. You know who you are.
I think if there's one positive to come out of the last year, it's the reminder that we are social animals, we need interaction with other humans, from time to time, some more than others. Be aware of this, because what lockdown has been to a lot of people, is life as normal for others - it comes with the lifestyle. This is another unspoken reality. This is "#vanlife".
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