The week got off to a bumpy start for me. It was crunchy, emotional and rough. Instead of skipping over it and only showing the good stuff (the highlights), I decided not to keep it to myself.
I cried on the internet. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
Read here:
This story was told on the lands of the Joondaburri/Yarun people, you might know it as Bribie Island. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge, to pay my respect to and to recognise the traditional custodians of this land, to elders past and present and I’d also like to acknowledge all of those of you who are reading this who identify as a First Nations person.
It’s February 24 and we are about a roughly about a month away from setting off in our campervan full time. I wanted to share with you today a little bit about where we’re at and how we’re going in terms of the process of setting off (and getting ready to do so).
It’s meant to be exciting – but I’m sad 😢
I’m starting to notice as we get to the pointy end and we get closer and closer to actually setting off, I’m noticing I’m feeling a little bit of a little bit of like sadness, sort of like grief, but it’s definitely an undercurrent of sadness. And for me, that sadness is about when I am no longer based in this location (Southeast Queensland). It’s about no longer having the freedom I currently have to attend social events and to catch up with my quite big community of friends and family members in this region. When I am traveling and I’m on the road, whilst the adventure is going to be rich and there’ll be lots and lots of people that I’ll meet, I am going to miss my community -I am quite involved in my local community. I love a good networking event. I love hosting them and attending them and I’ve done so for many, many years now. And I’ve also developed some really, really great, beautiful, rich friendships and I’m going to miss them too.
And so whilst I am excited for what is available to us when we set off and we start to live a more transient lifestyle, a location independent lifestyle – it’s very exciting. I will miss that heart to heart, face to face, belly to belly connection that is available to me being able to jump into the car and go and catch up with a friend who’s visiting from Naarm (Melbourne) this week was wonderful. Or going to a Rage Cage (one of those smash rooms) for two of my dear friends for their combined birthday. That won’t be possible on the road, and there is definitely a sense of sadness there.
I think it’s important that, whilst this opportunity is incredible and it’s very rich, there are some things that I will be farewelling when we do move away from this location. 😔 One of the other things I’m also experiencing is the desire to find a bit of routine and from moving out of our rental property and into share with my mum and dad and to stay with them for a little while.
I tore a ligament in my ankle when we were moving house (a few months back in Nov 2024) and so what was an established routine could be potentially picked up and transferred across but it hasn’t been because my mobility has been impacted. And now I’m finding I’m in this state where I’m craving that routine and I’m craving some of that stability and that consistency that I had and it’s harder than it was to have that when I was in my own home, in my own space with marching to the beat of my own drum and all of that sort of stuff. So yeah, I’m having that internal battle of like, I could do a yoga class – what does that look like?
How do I create a sense of rhythm and a sense of routine when the environment is constantly changing?
I’m both excited and a little bit hesitant. I think it’s really important to just talk about the whole spectrum of experiences and emotions that come from this van life experience instead of just what you might expect to see on Instagram, which is, you know, the highlights reel.
All of my clothes are now packed
Another thing I want to share with you is a really practical thing. All of my clothes for van life are officially now packed. My shoes, my clothing, my underwear.
My beautiful husband Mat, has been very generous with how much space he has allowed me for clothing compared to how much he’s allowed for himself. He will happily wear the same pairs of shorts and shirts week in, week out and not give a shit. He’svery low maintenance in that regard. But I have tights and shorts andmaxi skirts and dresses and I just I’m feeling really good about that. If I can’t express how I’m feeling through what I’m wearing I feel limited. It’s such a great privilege to have some space dedicated to clothes that feels good.
I have culled my wardrobe quite a bit in the last 12 months. And there are a few pieces that have snuck in that I know I will wear over and over and over again, but I definitely have moved on a lot of things that don’t bring me joy. So liberating!
Retiring my husband
Mat is almost finished work. The social enterprise that he was working for is, they’ve just opened a new cafe just this week actually and he did some very big days but they had a really really successful opening day.
And then the day after that, when they refined things even more so, things were even better. So he’s feeling really satisfied about how that has unfolded. He’s definitely going to leave this organization on a high because he has created some really great systems and processes from what I understand in the new cafe that’s been opened. All of their profits go towards funding medical research, a cause that is really near and dear to Mat’s heart. Having lost his dad quite a number of years ago now – but having his life extended through a kidney transplant – there’s a real felt sense of connection to medical research for him. I love that he has been able to do that and gets to open another establishment in the final days of his working life with that social enterprise – to create some impact before he finishes.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading.
And if you’ve got questions, or you want to hear more of my story, here are two things you can do:
Tune into my podcast – The Chenae Show
Read the next instalment of the story here.
See you byyyye!