Where it All Started

Everything starts somewhere right? So I’m not sure where to begin this story, to be honest... Let's start with when I was a kid, because what we are exposed to and how we grow up impacts who we’ll be and how we will choose to live as adults. I come from a very working-class family. I’m proud of how hard my parents worked and I’m so grateful that I grew up in a family that was bursting at the seams with love. We didn’t take yearly abroad holidays but instead got to see little bits of my home country. We didn’t have all the latest gadgets and technology, so instead, we played games, practiced music, did a lot of walking, and sat down together as a family every evening for a meal. Talking and learning about the world through each other.

Growing Up

Growing up I found it pretty hard to fit in with other people my age. I didn’t have loads and loads of friends, I was lucky enough to have a very small circle of people with that I could be myself around. When I was 16 years old I decided to leave school and start working full time. This included working early mornings at a bakery and by night I’d be playing guitar and singing in bars, restaurants, and hotels. Doing these two jobs (older me has no idea how younger me survived with so little sleep), gave me just enough savings to afford a one-way ticket to New Zealand.

A Learning Curve

I remember I had about 3.5K in my bank account when I left and I thought that would last me a while... Nope! During my first few months of being away, I did a bungee jump, skydive, white water rafting, caving, abseiling, and just about any expensive activity you can think of. So not long after I arrived I had to start looking for a job. My first job abroad was waitressing which I quickly realised I was really bad at, followed by pizza making and then cleaning. It wasn’t glamorous at all but the excitement of being able to support myself abroad was well worth it.

Catching the Travel Bug

After a little while, I had saved up enough money to hit the road again so I bought a little car to live in (to save money and to see the rest of New Zealand). It was at this point when I realised just how cheap travel can be. The car I bought was cheap and since I bought it from a fellow backpacker it already had a mattress in the back, a camping stove, and everything I needed for living and cooking. I explored the North island, followed by the South Island. I sold my car eventually and began hostel hopping. Racked up several different jobs. at this point I had tried so many jobs, many of which I didn’t even know existed! My favourites were being a portrait photographer on a boat (I still don't know how I got that job with 0 experience) and working at an ice bar in a party town.

Finding Jake

While I was working at the ice bar I was also working for accommodation at a hostel (working for 3 hours a day 6 days a week in exchange for accommodation), that's where I met Jake who was doing the same thing. We instantly became friends and went on loads of adventures together around Queenstown and the south island while sleeping in the back of his station wagon (estate car). He had plans to leave so that's what he did. a few days later I quit my job, packed up all my belongings and joined him.

The Journey Continues

We decided to hop on a flight to Thailand with the money we’d saved from working so hard in New Zealand. By this point, I hadn’t been back to the UK or seen any of my family for around 3 years so that was my next stop. I left Jake in Thailand and had the most amazing time with my family who I missed so much. Even though I loved being there and seeing everyone, I knew travelling was what I wanted to do. So I returned to Thailand. It was during all this that we started taking photography more seriously and I started blogging (on my old blog which doesn’t exist anymore) and using social media to share our adventures.

We started to run out of money so our next stop was Australia where we knew we would be able to work and save some money.

Realising this could be forever?

Getting a job in Australia was pretty easy. There are so many farms and not enough people willing to work out in the hot sun all day. I ended up getting a job on a potato farm and a few shifts on a lime farm. Jake was on a banana farm. The accommodation was abysmal with holes in the walls, rats, spiders, and cockroaches crawling over the beds. I don’t want to go into too much in detail but the lady in charge was usually drunk, very aggressive, and had no desire to better the place in any way. The work itself was hard, the harder work I’ve ever done in my life and it was then that I realised, that even the most physically challenging things are 99% mental strength based. There were a lot of times I could have given up but sometimes you just have to keep going.

After a while, on the farms, we headed to the city where I made a few extra coins in a cafe before we bought a little car to travel and sleep in and drove all around Australia. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Entering the Digital World of Nomadism

After travelling all over Australia we realised that to travel to non-English speaking countries we would need to get online jobs. The thought of getting an online job stressed me out if I’m being totally honest with you.

Jake has a degree so we knew it would be easy for him with that “all-important piece of paper”… But for me, someone who left school at the age of 16 with years of working but no important pieces of paper… I thought it was impossible.

Thankfully we both managed to get jobs as online English teachers (more about that HERE), the job was definitely more personality based than anything because the children were so young. It was more a case of playing games and getting them to repeat words using pictures on the screen.

A Dream Come True

With this job, we travelled all around Asia. The best thing was, because we were teaching Chinese children, the time zone was perfect. The children would take their classes in the evening which meant we could explore all day and then work for a few hours each evening. We stayed at cheap homestays and hostels and it was the perfect job for us. We ended up teaching English online for a couple of years.

Travelling around Asia was one of the best things I’ve ever done and I WILL go back. I feel so drawn to that part of the world. I have this feeling that places like Vietnam, Bali and Thailand will be places that will play a really big part in my future somehow.

The World Turned Into Chaos

Who would have thought that something like this would happen in our lifetime? You know what I’m talking about, we were all completely unprepared for what was about to unfold.

Jake and I didn’t have a place to call our own and the world went into sudden lockdown.

Since we’d lived in a few vehicles before we decided to buy a cheap van and turn it into a tiny home.

We got our big bright red van for £4900 on eBay with 42,000 miles. We then spent 4 months on my parents driveway building everything from scratch on the inside for just under £3000. (Thank you mum and dad for helping us)!

A Change of Lifestyle AND Career…

Despite having lived in a few vehicles before (1 van and three different cars), van life felt new to me after backpacking for so many years. It felt safe and easy. I could finally give my back a rest from carrying so much stuff all the time, I could organise my things and have a place to store things. After about a year of living in the van and teaching English online, it finally happened.

The dream finally came true. All these years of posting every day on social media, learning how to edit, learning how to write engaging content, and learning how social media works. Hours every day of what was essentially unpaid work and a hobby at the same time. We were finally able to quit teaching to pursue full-time content creation.

Now…

That brings us to right now. It’s January 2024 and I’m currently doing a mixture of van life and backpacking, using my van as my home and the world as my garden.

If you take anything from this story, take this: YOU and only YOU can make your dreams come true. If you can’t take a big leap right now, take baby steps. Either way you will get there.

Below you’ll find a detailed story about how I got to where I am today. If you would prefer to listen and watch instead of read, click the button below: