CREATING INCLUSIVE SPACES IN VAN LIFE (AND BEYOND)
My Van Life Experience
From the very moment that my partner and I first saw a kitted-out Sprinter pull into a visitor center parking lot at Yosemite National Park, van life has captivated me. From the discovery process (Wait, people like, live in these things?) to the Instagram/YouTube rabbit hole, I was consumed by an obsession with the lifestyle.
That was 2017, and we were so taken by van life that we made a promise to each other: by 2022, we’d have at least given van life a try. To keep a long story short, we first hit the road in the summer of 2019, and while we haven’t quite been full-time (COVID-19 be damned), it is beautiful to have joined this amazing community ahead of schedule—and we’re now on our second rig!
As a Black man, I was used to being one of few—or the only one—in predominantly White spaces for years, and I’d gotten very good at simply
