Emotional Challenges of Fulltime RVing - link

[GypsyDogs]

Found this in some random interweb wandering. The article and information is quite good!
Emotional Challenges of Fulltime RVing

 

[Almost There]

Somehow I can't help but think that if one considers it a 'challenge' then so it will be! If you think it's going to be difficult, then it sure will be.

Maybe I'm the type that has never tied myself too tightly to places and people or perhaps I'm just used to being separated by the miles from my friends, but I have never found it stressful. But then I also think of  home as where I, personally, am at that moment. When asked where I'm from I give my birthplace as in "well I was born in xxxx" - where I'm from has no meaning to me.

Perhaps I've more gypsy in me than some other people - held down in one place is more stressful to me than wandering!

 

[cyndi]

Good information for a newbie to consider, I guess. Although, I was a newbie once and never considered any of those things. We moved a good amount when I was a kid and since then, I've realized change is a good thing, opens doors and doesn't mean the end of anything. When I was a kid I hated the moving, most of the time.

 

[gcal]

Sure. Retiring before I was ready was hard. I liked my job. But we didn't sell the s&b and hit the road for a year, so that got worked thru.

No other real issues. We thought ahead and set up our affairs to run smoothly. No debt. Text, Facebook, Internet and phone keeps up with friends and family. Still have too much junk. Takes too long to set up and break down. I think some people have issues because they take themselves to seriously. The ones that have emotional problems on the road probably had problems when they weren't on the road. They were just used to it.

 

[Brian_and_Jesse]

My first reaction to reading the article was "Who are these people"? But then I cast my mind back over the past six decades. I thought about other couples whom Brian and I know, and how different a life of 9 - 5 is to the one we've been blessed with. At least, to us it's a blessing, but to some others, I know it wouldn't be.

Brian and I are together 24/7 and pretty much always have been. Life on the move has been a constant for both of us almost since birth - even before we found each other - so we're used to that kind of change.

Knowing one's partner intimately, and liking as well as loving them obviously makes life on the road and in a confined space easier. Sure, you're going to disagree occasionally, but who doesn't? With us, it's usually a five-minute "You ticked me off when you did that" kind of confrontation, and then it's over and done with and forgotten. I don't think I'd fare too well on the road with someone I barely knew, like some of the newly paired couples mentioned in the article....

The only thing that concerns me about mobile living (or any kind of living) is the fact that one of us will likely predecease the other, and in all probability it'll be I who takes my leave first. I know that we each have concerns about leaving the other one 'out there' alone. Oh, well, maybe we'll fall of the mountain together! Like everything else unknown in life, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

While I can't relate to having a separate bedtime, and separate hobbies, etc., I suppose it's not such a shallow article after all. Some good food for thought there.

Shalom,

Jesse.

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

There are people who will find something bad in anything.  For example,

"Missing special events and occasions with family and friends."

If you don't want to miss your cousin's birthday, drive there.  Being mobile, not tied down, allows you to choose what you go to and what you miss.  You can't do everything.  I have a big spreadsheet of festivals and events I consider.  I have to miss most of them because I'm at a different event.  If I was stuck in an apartment, I wouldn't have a choice.

I think the article pretty much misses the point.  Some of the "emotional challenges" left out are:
1) Not being able to have a garden
2) Not being able to have a herd of goats
3) Not being able to have a collection of old cars
4) Not being able to have a wood-working shop
5) Not having a place your cousin can crash at
6) Not being able to have fruit trees

I mention the herd of goats because I have a friend who also plays harmonica, and has a herd of goats.  She can't go to some of the things I go to because who would mind her goats?  

Friends?  I have 200 friends on facebook, real friends, I personally know every one of them.  Some of the greatest harmonica players in the country know me by name, because I go where they are and they see me all the time (NOT because of my mediocre harmonica skills).  I have friends from every festival I go to, all over the country.  I have many more friends now than I had before I started traveling.

 

[SoulRaven]

I see much more of my friends and family, and can attend many more events now than I ever could while I was working regular jobs.

My neighbors are my friends in every town I visit.

Life is good.