Life as Inbetweeners
As we've traveled through life's journey, both before and after we became Vagabloggers, we've been called many things. We've been placed into many social genres and have been identified as being part of many particular cliques. Some of the labels placed on us have been: Rock Climbers, Hippies, Vegetarians, Van Dwellers, Couch Surfers, Coffee Geeks, Drifters and just plain Weirdos. Funny thing is, almost all of these labels have been applied by those outside of these social circles. If you asked the people inside these circles, invariably most of them would reply "They're cool, but they're not one of us."
Recently, this paradox has made itself all-the-more clear while we've been camped out at Miguel's Pizza in Kentucky's Red River Gorge. You see, Miguel's is a legendary "climbers only" hangout and campground smack in the middle of the Eastern United States' climbing Mecca. As we've spent the last several days here, we've come to realize something... Maybe we're not "climbers" after all.. It seems to be appropriately labeled as a climber, one must allow their entire lives and thought patterns to revolve around the sport. We've been climbing for just over a year now and during the past year, have fallen madly in love with the sport. We've been labeled as climbers by both others who's paths we've crossed and by ourselves. That is until now.
While we do love climbing and seek it out whenever/wherever possible, we've allowed other things into our lives and can certainly say that this journey we're on is not just a "big climbing trip". Well, to not label our journey as such and still consider ourselves to be real climbers, we've learned, is blasphemy. All-in-all, after interacting with and being amongst climbing's purists, it seems we just don't fit in to this group.
We've also been labeled (by others and ourselves) as Van Dwellers. In all reality... we are. We live in a van. This is true. But we certainly don't live in a van the way others do or would have us do. We're minimalists. And after being camped out for several days amongst many other van dwellers, this has become abundantly clear.
Van dwellers are a funny bunch. We've discovered that it's particularly common for them to take painstaking efforts to make one's "van home" feel as much like home as possible. This includes, but is not limited to: building custom shelving and/or storage compartments, stripping seats and creating custom sleeping spaces, devising elaborate stove and kitchen and food refrigeration setups for eating, rigging custom air conditioning and/or air flow devices and so on. Please understand, we don't feel that there is anything particularly wrong with these methods, it's just not the way we do it. Over the past 6 months of van living, our "customizations" are as follows: flip middle seat backwards (no custom bracketry, it was meant to do that), black out back windows and hang curtain for privacy and light blocking, purchase $9 clip-on cigarette lighter fan. That's it. Because of our minimalistic approach, when other van dwellers want to see our "setup", they inevitably find themselves disappointed with our lack of customizations and we are then stripped of our title by these van dwelling purists.
If you were to examine our roles in the various groups we "belong" in, you'd again find scenarios that are very similar to the two examples given above. So at this point it seems we're forever destined to wander the globe as people who are, but aren't. Undefined. Shifting into and out of various social circles along our way. After all, if we hadn't embraced the idea of going against the societal grain, we would have never been able to begin this journey in the first place. So here's to not fitting in and embracing this life of wandering the road as "Inbetweeners"....
Do you share our plight? Just want to share thoughts of your own? We wanna hear from you! Add your take in the comments below.
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I’ve always thought you two were very unique people and in a class all your own. Minimalists probably fit you better than any “title” if someone were to do that. Someday we may come join you for a bit.
We are definitely odd 😀
I think you should come join us!! Maybe in Florida or perhaps Costa Rica???!!
Costa Rica?????
Wow, I didn’t expect this much response when I put up this post. Great points from everyone all around. I hope I didn’t paint some “tortured souls who don’t fit it” type of picture. We certainly don’t feel that way and that wasn’t the point of this post. As stated in a message we also received in response to this post… “Collectively there are more of ‘us’ than ‘them’!” I just hope that through our journey, maybe a few more people may find themselves inspired to embrace their individuality and walk down their own path… wherever that may lead.
I like your setup just the way it is. I envy it even. Ah, someday.
As far as spending time at Miguel’s you are on the nose, as well as what Meisha said while we were there. “Just because you rock climb doesn’t automatically make us friends.” But I really think that’s going to be the case in most sports, be especially in individual/esoteric sports. You have a huge range of people who climb from the dirty hippies with 3 years running unwashed dreads, the grade chasing meat heads, the regular meat heads, the euro guys drinking and playing trans techno until 2am and the drunk/high dude who annoys the hell out of everyone and randomly does one arm pull ups yelling “look at me bitches!” Or us who climb because it’s fun and that’s all it is/needs to be. Climb your own climb, hike your own hike, travel your own journey, the rest of you can climb your own climb then jump off the cliff.
There is a quote I like a lot “You don’t know me or who I am, but I am everything you think I am and exactly who you believe me to be.” Meaning you can’t change how someone see’s you, only that you can be true to yourself. Others perception of you will always be theirs.
I love that you two are true to yourselves. It reminds me why we are such good friends.
That’s a great quote. We’re gonna have to remember that one.
So when are you coming to visit and make sure we’re still being true to ourselves lol? Dead horse=beaten.
I appreciate the fact that you have retained your individuality. I believe like you say that those who obsess on a single facet of life are doomed to miss out on too much. I believe you are doing it right calling yourself “minimalists”. Your openness and objectivity puts you in a far better position to both observe as well as participate in this myriad of experiences in a positive manner.
Well said Dan. We couldn’t agree with you more.
I’ve seen your setup, and I’m pretty impressed. It seems to me that you guys are the “real deal”.
Thanks Jo. And maybe we are the “real deal”, but whether we are or aren’t, we’ve found it really doesn’t matter. Our only hope is to continue to be true to ourselves no matter what labels are applied to or stripped from us by any group. 🙂