Living The Dream

Living the Dream

Driving solo around Australia in search of my dream life.

The path to living a life you have only imagined

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The number one thing people say when you live in a van is, ‘You’re Living the Dream.’

After two long years of COVID lock downs spent largely alone, I had an epiphany. If I was destined to spend the rest of my life on my own, I may as well do it in the middle of nowhere waking up to the site of the beautiful Australian landscape.

I quit my job, packed up my possessions, left my Sydney beach-side apartment and moved full-time into a converted van. I had always dreamed of completing a full lap of Australia, and modern vanlife looked like an absolute dream.

But things aren’t always what they seem from the outside.

The glamorous life I had seen portrayed online wasn’t nearly as dreamy as I expected. When vanlife (and I) started to unravel, I heard the advice of one of my favourite podcasters: Just start talking about it.

Alone in the middle of the Australian outback without another soul in sight, I started talking to the only audience I felt safe enough to confide in—my very own fake podcast. Listeners who wouldn’t judge, criticise, shame, ignore me and most importantly couldn’t possibly talk back.

Living the Dream is adapted from my unpublished podcast Living the Dream..? Real-time reflections recorded while travelling solo around Australia. Navigating isolation, disappointment, fear, burnout and the slow process of finding my way back to myself.

For anyone who has ever found themselves wondering how life went so far off course, Living the Dream is a reminder that rock bottom doesn’t have to be the end of your story.