“Why do you do this?” – a question we get asked often when people learn that we live and travel full-time in our RV. It’s easy to immediately think of the things we gave up. We had a spacious Jersey City apartment with a walk-in closet, washer/dryer, and dishwasher, a law firm job in Manhattan, the picturesque park down the block, and the corner deli where we could get Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches (a Jersey staple) whenever we wanted.

But when we reflected on our life, we realized that although we were happy, we always dreamed of a more meaningful life together with more time, more experience, and more freedom. Despite all the inertia and deeply instilled risk aversion tugging us to stay the course, we knew that what we stood to gain from breaking out of our old routine far outweighed the conventional comforts we’d be leaving behind. We simply couldn’t deny the call of the open road any longer.

Today is Day 250 since we embarked on our new life, and we wanted to reflect on those key reasons that compelled us to take a giant leap of faith back in August of last year. Here is our Top 10 list (in no particular order) of why we RV:

1. More quality time

We wanted more quality time with each other, beyond just evenings and weekends. Practically speaking, we’re young, energetic, newly married, and don’t have kids yet, so we saw this as the perfect opportunity to maximize our time together. RV life has allowed us to spend pretty much every day together and nurture our relationship.

2. More time outdoors

Before moving into Samwise, we both spent the vast majority of our time indoors. Whether it was in a windowless office or in the apartment, our weekdays were not vitamin D heavy, to say the least. At the end of a long day or week, it was often the default to just curl up on the big comfy couch and loaf. We wanted to be more physical and spend more time outdoors. Living in an RV connects us to the outdoors all the time, as our home naturally extends to the space outside. Whether it’s a short walk around our campground or a full day exploring a national park, our new default has become spending time outside in nature.

3. More time to create

Before, we found ourselves almost exclusively consuming content rather than creating. Of course, we still love to watch our favorite shows, movies, and everything else, but we’ve become more thoughtful about our habits. Now we can devote significantly more time to finding and creating with our own voice. We’ve also exchanged a lot of time doing routine things like commuting every day with a dynamic life that regularly introduces us to new places, scenery, and communities. This helps keep our minds stimulated and inspired to keep creating.

4. Experience this country

As Americans who both grew up in the small state of NJ, we have always shared a passion to experience our big country to the fullest extent possible. By RVing, we can visit more of America’s vibrant cities, spectacular national parks, small historic towns, and see all the corn fields, wind farms, and giant roadside dinosaur statues in between. We’re privileged to call such a massive and diverse land our home. We want to take full advantage of that by seeing and living it for ourselves – to truly understand our culture and find the familiar in far-flung places across all 50 states.

5. Collect experiences, not stuff

Yi caught onto the Minimalism and Marie Kondo’s tidying movements many years ago (before it was cool). So we’d already made an effort to downsize our possessions and keep only those we really value – those that “spark joy.” When we reduced physical clutter, we also made room for ourselves mentally and emotionally, allowing us to focus more on seeking and appreciating new experiences. Moving into Samwise took us to the next level. Even in a 30ft RV, our space is very limited. We try to keep only the essentials, things that serve a purpose and spark joy – looking at you multi-position ladder! We used to collect commemorative magnets when we traveled to new places, but now we focus on collecting the precious memories.

6. Living our values

We’ve always seen ourselves as adventurous people who get out there and try new things. But we wanted to walk the walk, and exchanging our Jersey City apartment for an RV allowed us to do that. When your home has wheels, you’re constantly setting out a course to something new and encouraging yourself to not fall into the routine. We also hope to impart these values onto our kids one day, and draw on this experience to encourage them to be curious, bold, and open-minded. We want to teach them to be unafraid of taking calculated risks, embracing adventure, and appreciating all that the world has the offer.

7. Freedom to live and work how we want

We now live in a hyper-connected digital economy, and we wanted to take advantage of this shift in the world to free ourselves from the traditional office and daily commute. Through living it, we hoped to prove that a rewarding career and work life doesn’t always have to be tethered to a neatly defined path. You can forge your own personal mission and path by doing what you love. We value the ability to be location-independent, and RV life has given us the flexibility to work from anywhere and truly shape our work life by doing what excites us.

8. Freedom to be at home anywhere we go

This one might be a little self-explanatory. We have a home that moves with us, so no matter where we move, we still feel at home. But it’s not just the physical aspect of taking everything to new places – it’s the feeling of being at home in Samwise and by extension, feeling at home in our new community. Over these past 250 days, we’ve been home in states as far as North Dakota, Utah, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Arizona, and more. We’ve lived in the mountains, the desert, the plains, and the coasts. RV life gives us the steady comfort of home with each exciting new environment.

9. Freedom to express ourselves

The RV lifestyle has allowed us to define our lives and put our voice out there. This goes hand in hand with #3 (more time to create) – now we have the freedom to be creative and expressive. Instead of just watching travel videos, or reading others’ posts, or watching movie reviews, we create those things. We experience, travel to awe-inspiring places, and learn how to create videos and blog about the things we’re interested in and our experiences. We’re challenging ourselves to learn new skills. Trying something new can be frustrating at times, but the reward is ultimately getting to express our own voice.

10. Freedom to live intentionally

For us, that means being intentional from our everyday decisions to how we plan for the future. RV life teaches us to be more conscious as consumers, to set goals for ourselves that align with our values, and to not let toxic notions of success – that our personal worth is tied to the size of our paycheck or job title – derail us from the life we want to live. No one laid out the RV life for us. We had to go out and get it. Planning and executing on this dream has liberated us to really define our own path going forward, whatever that might be.