On this week’s BigRobsVan YouTube channel, I did a Q&A and answered some hard hitting questions like “will you be adding air conditioning to your van?” and “does your van have a name?” I like talking about vanlife and I like making videos so this seemed like a natural fit.

I got my first electric guitar when I was a teenager. Instead of putting in the time to learn chords, I bought a few books of tablature (we used to call them “cheat sheets”) and learned how to play a few specific songs. When my friends came over to visit I could impress them by play one one of those songs, but if they asked me to play anything else I was at a loss. I didn’t know the names of any chords. I didn’t know basic scales back then. I barely knew how to tune the guitar! I fell into this weird place where I knew more about playing guitar than people who had never played the guitar, and less than anyone who had taken a single lesson. Sometimes that’s how I feel about vanlife. I know more about vanlife than people who don’t know anything about vanlife, and feel like I know less than every single person who owns a van.

I suffer from imposter syndrome. On every video I make and every blog post I write I question whether or not I am qualified to do this. There are people who live in vans fulltime and people who have been doing vanlife for years and years. Why would anyone want to hear what I have to say on the topic?

Last year a close friend’s son decided to write a book and approached me with some questions. When you have imposter syndrome you constantly downplay your own accomplishments and credentials. When I told my wife I didn’t feel qualified to give anyone book writing advice, she had to remind me that less than five years ago I went back to school and earned a master’s degree in professional writing.

That’s what imposter syndrome is like. It’s a constant feeling that my opinion has no value because there are other people out there who know more about the topic than I do.

And therein lies the problem; there’s not just one single person who knows about vanlife, or writing books, or any other subject you can think of. There are all kinds of experts, all kinds of people with varying levels of experience and knowledge. Everybody comes from a different place; people have different backgrounds and different life experiences. Ask a dozen vanlifers what the best model of van is and prepare yourself to hear twelve different answers.

Imposter syndrom is something I struggle with, but I’m working on it. Putting opinions into blogs or on YouTube can make a person feel pretty vulnerable. What if I’m wrong? What if I forgot something? What if I offend someone?

At the end of the day everybody is entitled to their opinion, and that’s what I’m sharing in this Q&A video and on my blog — my opinions. If you have any questions about vanlife — or writing books, for that matter — I’ll do my best to answer them.