3 lessons learned, 2 girls, night 1

And after a month and a half of expected, yet unexpected repairs, we are off. I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting an update on whether we have left the hometowns, and the answer is yes. I know.. we are shocked too.. After picking up the van from yet another mechanic, we packed it up (for probably the 5th time). Our poor little siblings have been stuck at home to spend our "last nights" with us like 5 times now... It's kind of become a habit to hug everyone goodbye every time we see them, because you know as best as we do when we will actually hit the road.

We filled the water jug, checked the batteries, and turned the speaker on, "Lets go Girls" blaring over the JBL as we pulled out of my neighborhood. We thought it was only fitting to stop in the town where it all began, Ames, IA.

The first night in the van was a success. We cracked open a LaCroix, stopped at Cafe B for a Long Island, and woke up to the beautiful views of frat houses and apartment complexes. In all honesty though, it just feels so good to be waking up in the van.

We immediately hopped in the front seats to find a bathroom… 2 stops with no success and we had never been happier to see a Starbucks. We parked the van, closed the curtains back up, and got ready for church.

In Fr. Kyle’s homily today, he talked about how the disciples were asked to give up everything and follow Jesus. He then explained his fondness of the minimalist movement and gave us 3 things we should all give up.

The first is to give up our stuff. We live in such a materialistic world, yet the less stuff we have the less crowded our vision and our hearts are from what is truly important. This is something we are hoping living in a van will help with. We were forced to be selective about what we packed to fit it all in while keeping the space comfortable and homey. Moving into the van has honestly been a wake-up call for us… we have so much more than we need, and honestly more than we even want. I’m hoping this journey will help me realize what’s actually necessary and what I can do without. We’ve already talked about finding somewhere to donate an article of clothing in some of the places we go… our closets would be all over the country. Kind of a cool idea:)

The second is to give up our idea of success. This is a hard one for so many people, and especially in a world full of social media. It’s not about the grades we get or how far we get in our careers or how happy we make ourselves look on the internet. We honestly need to drop all of the concepts of success that we have created. There will always be someone who’s smarter, someone who makes more money, or who appears even happier than you… but does this make you less successful?

The third is your reputation: to give up defining ourselves in terms of what other people think of us. I don’t know about you, but this feels nearly impossible to me. When the van wasn’t going as planned, something we kept saying was “but everyone is expecting us to do this.” We started putting our identity in the van… instead of it just being something we were doing; it was becoming who we were. Which, I’m not gonna lie… we love it. We love being the girls with the van. But the truth of it is, if Shania wouldn’t have pulled through (or decides not to at any point), we are still us and no less special or important… and definitely not any less cool. We are still fully us and fully loved…and fully cool.

Thanks so much for following us! We hope you get a good laugh out of our stories and maybe get to learn a thing or two from our experiences.

Here are some pics from our first of many LaCroix photoshoots.