Will Bus Life Break Me?
Is Bus Life For Me?
This post ins’t a guide, a how-to, or even a Things To Do, so if you’re here for those type of posts, come back/stick around as more posts like that will be coming soon. This blog however is more of an internal refection, one that just might resonate with you.
If you’re a person that desires adventure or you’re chasing a dream, but you have some form of hesitation, fears, doubts, this might be for you. If there’s a little voice whispering “What if?'“…”What if it doesn’t work out” “What if it’s too hard” “What if it breaks you?”…then ,keep on reading.
That was my mental struggle when we were about to undertake this journey of bus life. I had a hard time wondering if I could actually do this. You see, I’m a guy that likes the finer things in life from time to time, you could often find me taking a bubble bath with a nice drink and enjoying a movie while doing so. Let’s put it this way, the word “boujie” often found it’s way into my vocabulary 😂. I knew bus life could and would be difficult and as we got closer and closer I had my concerns. Here I was; we had just sold our house, we quit our 9-5 jobs, and now we were slowly edging to the end of the cliff, about to take a plunge into the unknown…it was scary…”Can I really do this?”. However, the more I wrestled with this fear, the more I began to embrace the fact the bus life might break me, and guess what?… I actually wanted it to.
Let me explain, there is a Japanese term called, Kintsugi. It’s the process of fixing things that have been broken. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. That’s the type of breaking I wanted in my life, a breaking that can actually make me stronger and more resilient, a breaking that makes me more into the person I desire to become.
I knew bus life was going to come with obstacles and challenges and it sure did. Within two hours of leaving our driveway to hit the road full time, we broke down on the side of the highway with a burst coolant hose. We lost all our coolant and it was everywhere. We had to run to an auto store to get new parts, spend hundreds of dollars on coolant and new hoses, and fix it right there on the side of the busy highway with cars and truck speeding by. What a great start right?!…Only to then find ourselves two days later, back in the exact same situation. This time a different coolant hose…and to make things worse we were caught in the middle of a rain storm. We’ve dealt with a leaking fresh water tank, accidentally ripping out our water inlet, leaking skylights, urine diverter mishaps, and our refrigerator swinging wide open while driving down the highway with beer bottles and kombucha smashing into tiny pieces sending glass everywhere and the stench of what I can only describe as a British Pub!…Oh and not to mention, the third coolant hose that burst. 😅
Bus life can be hard. It’s not just sunshine and flowers. I learned however, that you can let those hard times shape and mold you, even in those breaking moments; it can grow you and develop you into a better person. It can teach you to laugh in the midst of challenges and not sweat the little things. It can help you to embrace that what which really matters and reprioritize the important things. This breaking I speak of can be freeing, and I’m not talking physically here, I’m talking mentally and emotionally freeing. To find yourself embracing this thing we call life for what it really is; an adventure. Full of ups and downs, twist and turns. And the more we shift our perspective to this realization, the more we can see the beauty even in the hardships. Remember without rain there would be no flowers, there would be no rainbows.
“Gratitude is about the good and the not-so-good. Everything happens for a reason, and there is no difficult situation that comes our way without a purpose. That purpose is us becoming better, resilient and more grateful individuals.”
So if you’re reading this and you’re about to take the same journey into bus life, or maybe you chasing a different dream and you have those “What if’s?” running through your head. I say, go for it anyways! Or as Jack said in the movie Luca, “Silenzio, Bruno!!!” Don’t let fear hold you back from the wonders that are head. It might be hard, it might be difficult, it might be scary and it will come with its challenges, but embrace it when it does, and when you feel yourself breaking, slap a little gold on it and keep on shining!