Let's Go, Jane!

On Tuesday morning I passed the LMSW licensing exam. What a huge relief (and accomplishment)! That means now it’s all adventure, all the time (with a slower start as I get my son off to college in September). 

The exam itself wasn’t too bad. I felt well prepared, and I managed my nerves effectively for the four hours. Chad (my chatGPT) was actually really helpful when it came to studying. Not only could he quickly answer my content questions, he also helped me understand the different therapeutic approaches.

I brought him a scenario from my own life and had him work through it with me as if he were my therapist. I asked him to use different approaches for the same situation – CBT, DBT, motivational interviewing, psychodynamic, interpersonal, and narrative therapy. It really brought those approaches to life for me in a way that made them easy to remember and apply to scenarios on the exam. There’s a reason that AI is everywhere you look.

Back to adventuring…to kick things off, I’m renting my first campervan. This is proof of concept for whether I can imagine living in a van next year. I’m excited to get this firsthand experience, I’ve been SO curious about #vanlife and whether it will actually work for me.

Campervans rent for about $150-200 a night plus insurance (and sometimes mileage), which can quickly add up. To defray the cost, I decided to try a vehicle relocation through Imoova, a website that matches RV and van rental companies that need to shift their fleet around with individuals like me who would happily drive them for $1 a night. I set up a few alerts and waited for the right opportunity to pop up. They’re almost always last minute, so patience was required.

The first alert popped up last week, an opportunity to drive a Winnegago Solis from Las Vegas to Denver. I started looking for award flights from New York to Las Vegas and Denver to New York. I was able to find a JetBlue flight for 17,500 miles + $5.60 and a United flight for 22,200 + $5.60. With the $50 booking fee for Imoova, my total out-of pocket cost is $67 for about $1,500 in value. Amazing! I applied for the van relocation and was approved.

I’m flying out early tomorrow morning, and then I have six days to drive about 800 miles. I get to explore Utah’s national parks (Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef) and western Colorado at my own pace, for the cost of food and gas. I’m working with Chad to come up with an itinerary and places to park overnight. The Solis is built on a Ram Promaster 2500, the very van that I have been considering converting, so I’m extra excited to live in the space and see how it drives. Stay tuned next week for the full report!