Diary: 1. Why We Quit Everything To Live In A Van

To our friends, and even us, it seems like a decision we made suddenly. However, it's something that has been building for a while...

Matt has always wanted to travel and be adventurous, but it's one of those things that you can never seem to find the money or time to do. On the other hand, I have always focused on the secure, family centric future.

We became Mr and Mrs Gibbs on 9th September 2017, just 3 months after our close friends Mark and Zoe said their vows. 

In our friendship group Mark and Zoe are the couple who are in the same place as us; they're married, have a mortgage, some pets, and jobs they don't see themselves in the long term.

Mr & Mrs Gibbs with friends

Then, in October 2017, they revealed they were 3 months pregnant - something we had discussed preparing for ourselves after our wedding. We wanted to move to a larger house first, closer to our friends. Unfortunately that dream was way over budget, and would take at least 6 months of hard graft, just to owe more money than we could possibly earn to buy some bricks, probably laden with mould. 

But Mark and Zoe’s announcement caught us off guard. It felt so surreal and so 'grown up'. And for the first time, felt like something we actually weren’t ready for. We’ve both always discussed having and raising children openly, and agreed that financially the right time would never exist, but that the right time could exist in our own happiness, and in a feeling of fulfilment in our lives before children, not because of children. 

We haven’t reached that level. Their announcement scared the crap out of us. It brought our mortality into perspective. 

2017 and the run up to it brought lots of sadness to our family, with losses of too many family members, much too soon. At the funerals, people always speak of the memories they had made, the great adventures they had and the reason they meant so much to so many people. 

It made us look at our lives. What would people say about us at our funeral? It’s morbid, we know, But we asked ourselves that question. Matt certainly had some good stories under his belt, some great experiences and challenges he’d faced in life, but none that lasted, or that he waxed lyrical about to friends and family. 

And me? Well there's plenty of things I've wanted to do, but had never created the opportunity because I didn't wanted to hurt other peoples feelings. My children, if I had any, would not really be told magical stories of adventure. They’d be told stories of depression limiting my world to the East of England. "It was a successful life, she had the property she’d always wanted, she’d put demons back in their place, and she worked to pay her mortgage with no adventures." Hardly titivating hey?

Not happening. 

We’re changing course. As of now.

No more living pay-cheque to pay-cheque, following the same boring routine, dreaming of all the things we want do.

We need to push the reset button. Take some time out from the daily grime, strip back to the basics, and have an adventure.

Jenna x

Next Post: 2. Researching Alternative Ways Of Living