My family has decided to get rid of most of what we own, pack up the sentimental items and put them in storage, and start living in an RV full-time. If you had asked me 10 years ago where I thought I'd be, this would not have even been a remote possibility. So how did I get here?
Humans are interesting creatures who never seem to be content with the present. As a result, we often spend a lot of time reflecting on the past and planning for the future. I don't know that anyone would ever tell you that learning from your past or having expectations for the future is a bad thing, but we've built a culture that teaches us to worry about everything except our present moment.
Growing up in this culture, I have planned for my future since I was about 6 or 7. The plan started out simple enough: I'd get through grade school, go to college, become President of the United States, and maybe get married somewhere along the way.
By the time I got to high school, I knew that college was still part of the plan, but getting married and having children had become more important to me. Now the plan was to figure out what I wanted to do for a living and find a husband. We would have 2 kids, a couple dogs, maybe some horses and settle down in a house with some property where my kids could raise their 4-H animals. Simple enough, right?
In 2006, I graduated with a degree in education, got married to a young man I'd met while working at Target, and moved to Georgia. My husband had been accepted to a program that would provide us more opportunities than we could have expected right out of college. In my 4th year of teaching, we had our first child and suddenly everything changed.
I decided to stop teaching and stay home with our daughter. Our five year plan adapted to the addition of a second daughter the next year. Suddenly, we were looking for a place that we would want to live for a while. When we went to visit my in-laws, we realized that the climate and landscape of Colorado were perfect for us.
The job hunt began. When I was 6 months pregnant with our third child, there was a job offer and suddenly we had 6 weeks to pack up and move. We packed up our house, drove the 26 hours with 2 dogs and 2 toddlers, lived with family, and found a rental house. After our son was born, we began to look for houses again. The plan was to find a house on at least 2 acres. I still wanted horses, a place to raise chickens and other small livestock.
We soon found out that most of the houses being built were either $180,000 townhouses or large houses starting around $220,000. We've always said that we didn't want to work for the rest of our lives or drastically change our lifestyle to pay off a house, so we began looking at all the options. We could buy an older house that we could pay off quickly, but most of them would require a lot of work. Perhaps, we could find some land and put a trailer on it while we build our dream home. Modular homes are pretty popular out here and fairly economical, so that was an option. Ultimately, none of the ideas were all that exciting for us.
As an engineer, my husband tends to look at all the options, even the ones that no one else would consider. I'm used to hearing his crazy schemes, as he works out the practicality of each idea. Most of his extreme ideas get a resounding no from me, but every once in a while, I decide to trust him. That's what happened here. He suggested we live in an RV full-time and although I was hesitant at first, I eventually agreed. So, here we are preparing to move our family of 5, along with 2 dogs, into an RV. Let the adventures begin!
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