Perfectionism is the enemy of execution, and my why doesn’t have anything to do with building out the perfect van. My why has to do with the places and experiences my van will take me. Experiences like in this picture, where I stood at the precipice and felt alive.

Another project down! It is ridiculous how fun it is when you are finishing a project on the van and things start looking like the home it will be in the end. With the ceilings up it feels like I am getting somewhere, even if it is a small step.

Real talk; building out your own van is difficult. Something that you often hear from those who have self-converted their vans is “if I can do it, you can do it!” and I’m sure that is mostly true and I know those who say it really mean it. But I do think it is important to be prepared for how difficult it is.

I know for sure these won’t be my last, but I figured I’d keep a running tally of what my top mistakes are each month of the van conversion. So here goes nothing, my top three biggest mistakes in my first month of self-converting my van.

And so it begins, I’m already rambling. My point is, maybe it’s just me but I’m a month and a week into my van conversion and I have already run the gamut of emotions, from triumphant to despair, and everything in between. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.

The last year has been a long and winding journey to discovering a side of myself, one that’s lain dormant behind years of anxiety and choices that were carrying me farther and farther away from the life I wanted to live.

Long exposure image of a secluded beach along the coast of Fidalgo Island, Washington.