“Go, because you want
to, because wanting to
leave is enough.”
- C H E RY L S T R AY E D
is on their own path, own journey. Whether you get a
college degree, take a break, or never look back, everything
turns out the way it should.
There were so many glorious moments while driving out
to California. We had so many great nights camping. The
days were filled with highways and gas stations, filling up
our tank again and again. Travis drove most of the way, as I
stared out the window amazed at the beauty of our country.
I had never felt so free. I wasn’t restrained to anything
and I felt like the world was an open book. It was an open
book indeed when we got to the beautiful San Diego.
Freedom comes with confusion. As humans, we’re always
on schedules and plans and for the first time in my life, I
was on no schedule or plan. I didn’t know what to do with
myself and California was this huge playground. Growing
up as surfers, this was our dream. We spent weeks surfing,
hiking, surfing some more, and even more exploring.
After some time, we got adjusted and settled into a small
apartment. The van life isn’t a luxurious and easy as all
of the photos on social media make it out to be. It’s dirty,
stuffy, uncomfortable, and surely not ideal when you have
a dog. Regardless of it’s downsides, having a van taught us
so much about ourselves. What we brought out to California
was all that we had. We couldn’t cling to everything that
couldn’t come with us. Those things wouldn’t bring us
memories, and they surely didn’t. The year that we lived
out there was the best year of my life. We worked hard to
pay our very expensive rent. But we also made time for
camping trips along the coast. One of my favorite places in
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