Saylorville Lake - Partly Cloudy 91 Degrees
“It’s an island, babe. If you don’t bring it here, you won’t find it here.” Said Harrison Ford to Anne Heche, with his boyish wry smile in one of my favorite movies, Six Days and Seven Nights. If you’re thinking about doing ‘the full-time thing’ this is actually a very valid statement.
I am naturally curious about other people and spend a lot of time talking to people about their life. What makes them happy, where they come from, what they love, what they don’t. I find most people in this life are generally happy and relaxed. They also loved camping before they started do it full time. I have met a rare few who had never camped and are loving the adventure. I have met some who owned a camper for years before going full-time who seem less that thrilled with life as they know it. The more I talk to people the more I realize, the lifestyle, awesome as it is, isn’t what makes them happy. They already were. This life has a certain hazing period that seems to make or break people in the first year. The outcome seems to have no bearing on whether they were seasoned campers, but entirely affected by whether they were happy in their brick and mortar life.
Case in point. One of the most miserable human beings I have ever met, was a retired school teacher who was in her first year of traveling in her RV and volunteering. She was generally unhappy, difficult for everyone to deal with and generally unsociable. What little I did talk to her in the very beginning she shared she had been through a major life change, was burnt out from a career that she hated and was looking for happiness. No surprise she wasn’t finding it on the island of full-time RV living. I have met several people like this so far. I read social media and watch people post one complaint after another whether they are part of my new full-time circle or from my old life. There are also the ones who are generally happy and share positive things regularly. Being a full-time RV’er doesn’t mean you’re blissfully happy, anymore than being in the trenches of your career or raising kids means your miserable.
Can living the full-time in your RV make you happy? Of course, it can, if it was your dream and if you already know how to find happiness. If you are a miserable person who thinks life is just one struggle after another and you can never get ahead, then think hard before you sell all your stuff and hit the road. My advice is find your happy place before you hit the road. Don’t expect the road to be a magic trick. Like taking the big vacation to ‘save’ your marriage or buying a nicer house to make you happier at home, this won’t work either. For all my gushing about how much fun we have (even now in a heat wave without AC) we have struggles and arguments, we have crappy days and good days, just like we always have. We’ve met miserable souls in this life and our old life. The island, that is this lifestyle, doesn’t have the answers one can only find in their own heart.
Until tomorrow…
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