#vanlife

Thanks to Instagram, my daughter wants to live in a van when she grows up. Turns out it's in her genes.

To educate myself more about her aspirations, I sought out Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland. The book follows several van and RV dwellers through temp jobs , caravans, and conventions.

Many in the nomad community support themselves through seasonal jobs. Amazon actively recruits this demographic to work in their warehouses, bending, lifting, and doing repetitive, mind-numbing work, for around $13 an hour. Another popular option is working as a camp host at campgrounds around the country cleaning latrines, picking up trash, and policing noise.

Between gigs they gather in the desert of Arizona with like minded folks, swapping goods, advising the newbies, making treks to Mexico for cheap dental work and prescriptions, and figuring out how to rig their ride to cook, shower, or pee more efficiently.

In a sense, this lifestyle offers freedom from debt, cutting ties from property ownership, taxes, and storage units. For some this is a choice, but for many others in the book, it’s a last resort solution. As Bruder writes, “The last free place in America is a parking spot.”

Home foreclosures, lost jobs, divorces have set them on this path. For others, affording an apartment near their workplace is impossible. Some have retired, selling their home to fund the first leg of their journey.

Although I haven’t seen the movie inspired by the book, I would like to watch it with my daughter. Either the difficulties of the lifestyle will dissuade her, or its joys will entice her even more. Regardless, this book will be required summer reading.