A new adventure awaits us.
A new chapter.
We are going after our dreams.
And honestly, even writing this feels a little surreal.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to travel.
It started when I was a little girl, and somewhere along the way, travel found its way into our marriage too. As a child, Dwayne camped a lot, and my imagination runs wild when he tells me his stories. 🚐🗺️
Eventually, a very specific travel dream became van life.
For the last eight months, we tried to do it the traditional way.
You know…
Apply for financing.
Trade in our car.
Buy the van.
Convert the van.
Have the plan.
Have the money.
Have everything lined up nicely.
You see, we’ve never exactly been ‘traditional’ kind of people, so when financing didn’t work out as planned, we said f* it.
What if we just go for it?
Not once everything was perfect.
Not once we had the van.
Not once we had every detail figured out.
Let’s...
Just…
Go.
And that’s what we’re doing.
We’ve sold all of our belongings, keeping the car, and hitting the road.
We’re not buying the van yet. We still need to raise the funds. 😜
So for now?
We’ll camp.
Wild camp.
House sit.
As well as collaborate with Airbnb owners. If you’re an Airbnb owner and you’re interested in collaborating, email us at ingrid@ingridmangiagalli.com.
The first thing we’re working towards is…
raising the funds to buy a converted van, or one we can convert ourselves.
We’re no longer waiting for the van to start living the dream.
We’re actively taking action towards it now.
And honestly?
That’s pretty f* big.
Before We Head Out…
The dream has actually always been to travel.
Up and down the South African coastline.
That part hasn’t changed.
But instead of diving straight into everything we want to do, we’ve decided to give ourselves a break first.
Because the truth is…
We’ve had one hell of a couple of years.
And the last stretch has been particularly tough. Really tough.
We’ve been through a lot together.
So when we finally leave, which looks like early next week 😲, we’re not going to immediately throw ourselves into the next thing and expect ourselves to be productive, inspired, creative and living our best car-life lives from day one.
😂
We’re thinking about booking an Airbnb.
Somewhere we can just…
Decompress.
Sleep.
Breathe.
Be somewhere new.
Let everything that’s happened settle and move into the rearview mirror.
Give ourselves permission to pause and celebrate ourselves before we start walking the new path.
Then we’ll head out.
To explore.
To live on the road.
Working towards our dreams and co-creating a nourishing life.
The coast has always been the plan.
We’re just giving ourselves a soft landing before we begin.
Be sure to follow our travels and adventures on All In Van Life, our new YouTube channel.
What We’re Really Letting Go Of
For most of our marriage, we survived. Barely, in some seasons.
We’ve made decisions from fear. From desperation. From putting other people’s needs before our own.
Abandoning ourselves because it seemed like “the responsible thing to do.”
We’ve always waited for The Right Time.
You know the one…
When everything finally makes sense.
When you have enough money. Enough certainty. Enough security. Enough evidence that it’s all going to work out.
Except…
The Right Time never comes.
And at some point, we realised we could spend our whole lives waiting for it.
Or we could believe in ourselves and say:
This is it.
Sometimes that’s just what you feel called to do.
So we’re taking the leap.
Not because we’re fearless.
Not because we have everything figured out.
We’re doing it because we’re tired of waiting for permission to live the life we actually want.
With how everything has been playing out, I’ve come to realise just how much security I’ve placed in having a home.
And stuff.
Things in cupboards.
Things I’ve collected over the years.
The feeling that we’re okay because we have all of this.
And now we’re letting go of almost all of it.
We’re keeping the bare necessities.
And suddenly there’s this strange, beautiful freedom sitting right alongside the fear.
Because when you don’t have all of the stuff…
You can go.
You can move.
You can wake up and decide where you’re going next.
You can follow the weather.
You can follow the ocean.
You can change your mind.
You can explore.
You can leave.
And that is both incredibly exciting…
and incredibly confronting.
When you’ve experienced financial struggle, a future like this can feel scary.
I know what it feels like to not have enough.
So when I look towards this wildly unconventional future, there is a part of me that wants to grab onto something ‘solid’.
Something certain.
Something I can point to and say:
We’re safe.
And there isn’t much of that right now.
There’s just us.
Our car.
Our dogs.
Some essentials.
The businesses we’re building.
And a whole lot of TRUST.
Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about since I read it.
Kathrin Zenkina shared her perspective on a question from her audience:
“I want to take a sabbatical, but I am afraid of losing everything I have built.”
And that really hit me because, in a way, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Her perspective was this:
“What you built isn’t the source. It’s a channel.”
You are the Source. You are the magic.
💡
That stayed with me.
Because you can be stripped back to almost nothing you thought made you, you. And yet you still have yourself.
Always.
You can rebuild.
You can create again.
You can learn something new.
You can figure things out.
I’m discovering what happens when I stop placing all my safety in things outside of me.
Not because those things don’t matter.
Of course they do.
But maybe they don’t have to be the source of my belief in myself, or what I’m capable and deserving of.
We’re taking footage of what our house looks like right now.
Things everywhere.
The process of letting go.
We have one buyer coming to take all of it off our hands.
Which is both practical and deeply symbolic.
Watching your belongings leave your house is a strange experience.
Some of it is just stuff.
Some of it makes you go: Oh, I remember that.
And some of it is a version of you you’re quietly saying goodbye to.
Life & Business
And yes, international travel is part of the dream too. I’m not building an online business just because. Most of my closest friends I haven’t even met in real life yet! 😉
Our life and our work are changing.
I’m still writing, creating meditations for InsightTimer & YouTube. And we have our online store.
But now we’ve also launched our travel YouTube — All In Van Life.
Our businesses.
Our travels.
Our life.
The things we’re learning.
The things that make us laugh.
The hard days.
The beautiful places.
The ordinary moments.
The figuring-it-out-as-we-go moments.
We’re not standing at the other side of this journey telling you how to do it.
We’re right here in the middle of it.
Experimenting.
Living.
Noticing.
Writing.
Co-creating.
Seeing what happens and hopefully inspiring others to choose themselves too.
Which, actually, feels very much like me.
The Real Adventure
Not knowing exactly where the road leads.
But knowing who is by your side.
And knowing that wherever you end up…
you still have yourself.
Always.
Most importantly, we’re no longer waiting to go after our dreams.
We’re already on our way.
And maybe that’s the part I want to remember most.
The dream didn’t start when everything was perfect.
It started the moment we decided we were no longer willing to wait for our lives to begin.
We don’t know exactly what comes next.
But for the first time in a very long time…
We’re choosing ourselves and seeing where the road takes us. 💛
Thank you for reading & being here!
Ingrid xx
How To Support My Work
✧ My writing, meditations and Held sessions are all donation-based/pay-what-you-can. If my work has resonated with you in some way and you’d like to support me, you can buy me a coffee (PayPal) or donate via local EFT transfer. Every bit genuinely helps support our beautifully multi-passionate life over here. ♡
✧ Held 1:1 Sessions
Held is a soft space to slow down, process, reflect and reconnect with yourself. Find out more here.
✧ Meditate with me on InsightTimer.
Image Credit: Unsplash
I started a Pinterest board for our adventures. And I recently added these inspirational “Theories”. They need to be shared. Hope it finds you exactly when you need it.
