Solo Female Vanlifer Finds Calm in the Chaos
This week on the podcast my guest is Maria Boutzoukas, a solo female vanlifer who dreamed of living in a van since she was a kid. She has so many people, and even the voices in her head, telling her that selling her house and moving into a van wasn’t practical. But now that she’s done it, she know she made the right decision.
We talk about all the ups and downs that came from selecting obtaining a van, building it out and finally hitting the road. Maria has ADHD and she quickly discovered that life on the road actually helped her symptoms. The constant changing scenery makes her feel more calm. She’s loving life on the road and share a bit of her story with us.
Key Take Aways:
1. There are a lot of ways to make community. Take advantage of them. Maria and I have never met in person, but we were part of a group on Clubhouse and then started to follow each other on Instagram. This interview was our first time actually chatting and now I feel like if we do meet up in real life, we’ll have so much to connect about.
2. With her ADHD diagnosis, the continuous chaos of moving and changing her environment actually helps her stay calm and focused. The constant change of scenery inspires her creativity and that helps at her job.
3. Rolling with the punches—going with the flow. When Maria didn’t get her van as expected, she showed a key trait of successful rv/van living. She pivoted and sketched the whole thing out so she could start the build as soon as she got it.
4. Because Maria travels and works full time from her van, she needed a really good cellular set up. She consulted with engineers and settled on a pep wave and Starlink system. She’s still trying to dial it in exactly. But like many things in this lifestyle, we try and tweak and adjust until we get it right.
