What does it feel like to have everything and still feel unfulfilled? Many people I have met along the way while travelling as a digital nomad, working from the most amazing places in the world, no matter where they were from, many times had one thing in common: They had homes, some even had families, great jobs, money and yet they felt unfulfilled in their daily lives.

The story below is from two beautiful souls who desperately wanted to make a change in their life. And who really made it happen! Sold all their belongings to fulfil their dream to go on an eternal van journey around the US.

If you've been dreaming about buying a van and just start driving without a final destination, here's a story for you to feel inspired!

In May 2016, John was working an office job in the finance industry and squeezing his other passions into the thin hours that stretched in between each workday.

I (Jayme) was constantly juggling approximately three jobs at a time, working as a waitress, a babysitter, or with a local nonprofit. We both knew that we had “made it” as far as what the world told us success was.

We owned a two-story 3 bedroom house in the nice suburbs of St. Louis. We had degrees. We had our jobs. And yet, we were still feeling unfulfilled.

We had always been avid travelers, so we decided to do one final trek before we started having kids.

We would buy an SUV and stay in Airbnb's around the country with our dogs to see what all this country had to offer, and a year or less later, we would return to our house and start filling it with children as we went back to our former jobs.

It was the plan, that is, until our friend told us to look up “#vanlife” on Instagram.

Neither of us really used Instagram and it was very new to us, but we quickly got sucked into the habit of endless scrolling, seeing people living in such beautiful remote areas, going wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

We spent a few short weeks dreaming the “what if” kind of dreams while scrolling around the different vanlife related hashtags, telling ourselves “I wish”, “If only”, “Maybe someday” – until finally we dropped the act, metaphorically slapped ourselves across the face, and just said to each other – “Y’know, what if we just DID it?”

The biggest thing holding us back was what to do with all of our belongings. We had a large home that we had filled to the brim, as if it was a museum of our lives.

Every wall and every ledge had a relic from some part of our relationship…how do you say goodbye to the physical representations of your memories?

Deep down we knew the obvious and cheapest answer: if we truly wanted to make this work, the first thing we needed to do was to say adios to this part of our lives entirely. It was time to cut ties with the former identities we had built that were so attached to “things.”

Once we officially decided to sell our belongings and buy a van, things really took off.

We had yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and more. We attended trunk sales of nearby churches and basically lived on Facebook, listing and selling every possession we had ever owned.

When all was said and done, we raised about $10,000, and we only had a few furniture pieces that had belonged to my grandmother and some boxes of items we couldn’t part with yet (our wedding guestbook, letters we had sent each other when we were long distance, etc.) that we stored at John’s parents place.

The only things left were the few items we could fit in our van!

We got the van in August 2016, really started building it in October 2016, and hit the road in April 2017. During that time we sold the majority of our belongings, found renters to live in our house (which we did eventually sell), gutted the van, created online businesses to help sustain this lifestyle (our main one being our van build website, loaded with free information to guide you through your own build!), built a tiny home on wheels, said farewell to our friends and family, and took off west.

Since that first departure, we have traveled coast to coast. We have gone up to Vermont and down to Florida, all throughout Wisconsin, Missouri, and more. We’ve lived in the mountains of Montana and the rainforests of Washington.

Our front yards have included our own private lake, multiple creeks and streams, and even buffalo and moose.

Our online work has not only sustained us but also surpassed our income of our previous 9-to-5 lives and we are already mentally building a van that will be able to house a child (not anytime soon, just planning for now!).

The scariest part about dramatically changing your life is just making the jump. After that you very quickly learn that spreading your wings isn’t as hard as they make it sound.

Falling is a way to learn how to stay up, and before you know it, you’ll be soaring in whatever direction you choose. It’s never too late to do the things in life you deeply desire. The only time we have is now.

Would you want to work online while living and working in a van and discovering some of the best places in the world?