Van life on campus is not for the weak

by Brad Butterfield

It was Spring semester’s first Monday, 11 p.m., 40 degrees fahrenheit. I was strumming through a sloppy chord progression in an empty campus parking lot with a fellow student I’d just met named Ryan Kelly. We tag-teamed a pasta dinner topped heavily with Egyptian hot sauce that sent me into a sweat.

Kelly’s right-hand-drive Toyota Hius van was parked next to my home on wheels - an all white Chevy 3500 christened ‘The Dump Truck.’ We are both student vanlifers. This unplanned, laughter filled jam session only tells a small aspect of what it means to live in a van.

In fact, my first week on campus was mostly colored by a lack of showering and being cold. This is to be expected. I have owned The Dump Truck for nearly three years now and have weathered a number of uncomfortable days in some strange places.

By week two on campus, I had found the best shower locations and was pleased to meet a handful of other fine folks choosing the same lifestyle as me. Vanlife is a lifestyle that attracts vastly varied characters with differing goals.

Wildlife major Steven Childs put it bluntly to me one evening in Bigfoot Burgers.

“It shows sheer willpower, and some intelligence,” Childs said “You don’t do this by fluke. Its not like one day you happen upon an RV or a van and are like -oh fuck it im going to college. You plan it out. You’ve thought about the things you need to do, and some people are willing to go a little further than other people to make it happen. Or their situation puts them in that position.”

Childs said there are also financial motivations behind his lifestyle choice. SEE VAN LIFE

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