WHY I moved into my Prius & how I got here (my story)

Hi everybody, I'm Nikki Delventhal. And since the winter of 2019 going into 2020, I've been living my unconventional dream of living out of my Prius full-time to explore the Americas and its natural beauty. And now I have my dog with me. He's been with me since September of 2020. My best friend and now my little car camper. That's his name, Camper. Hi everybody, I'm Nikki and this is Camper and we live in this 2006 Toyota Prius. And today I'm here to do something a little different than all my other videos and it's just to explain to you why Camper and I live in a car. And just other frequently asked questions that maybe I don't touch on in my other videos. So here we go. This is actually my second time living in a car. The first time was in Australia. It was for two months and I'll tell you more about that later. Sidenote, before living in my car full-time, this was also one of my favorite ways to travel. I would fly in, check my camping stuff, even my air mattress, rent a car or minivan, and use that as my hub for one to two weeks. Here is a general overview of my route this year, revisiting all of my favorite places. Though the mileage is approximate because when I was in Roslyn, Washington, my friend's dog accidentally reset the odometer with their nose. Thanks, Sadie. You cute pup. Here's a little backstory on me to answer all of your questions and comments. I have this, what a lot of people call maybe a backwards philosophy on life, where I don't understand why we work so hard when we're young and able-bodied and wait until we're retired or possibly older when it's so much harder to do the things we truly want to do. Why are we waiting to live when maybe we won't even have a later? Of course, still make money and do what you need to do, but make what you need. And if you make more, awesome, save it, and then keep doing what you love. But yeah, I'll sit at a desk when my knees are shot and I've climbed all the mountain peaks that I can and I've danced all the dances and I've done all the challenges. I don't know. That's just my philosophy. You don't have to agree with it. That's the beauty of this world. This is how I feel and this is how I live. I had this aha moment when I was in my 20s. I was in the bachelor mansion. I was like four weeks in and I was just like drowning in this eating disorder. And more on that story later. I've always made my life choices based on my very unconventional dreams and just doing exactly what I wanted. Of course, not without hard work and sacrifice. I'm very goal oriented. One big thing, no decision I've ever made career wise has been about the money. Let me start as a teenager, Nikki. So I was 17 years old and I looked at my parents and I was like, this doesn't feel right. I don't think I should go to college. And it wasn't about the grades and it wasn't about the money. I'd been working every day since I was 15. So thank you mom and dad for instilling good work ethic and savings and just all the life skills I needed really young. I knew it wasn't for me. So 17 years old, I graduated high school and I went down to Florida where I went to hair school. Apparently my story is really snoozing camper out over here. I moved back up north and I scored a job at, I think it was like the number five salon in the country at the time. I was so stoked about it and making minimum wage goals. Right. And honestly, it was so much fun. Um, some stars that I worked with, I loved like Kate Hudson and her family were a dream. Some others, not so much, but that's for myself. Um, it wasn't sustainable for me. So after the hair industry and waking up at 3 a.m. to do fasted cardio, commute an hour and a half into the city by train, work all day, commute back. And then at night I was practicing cheerleading routines and prepping for auditions because another dream I had was I wanted to be a professional cheerleader. I was exhausted. I was time to reinvent myself again. So I quit doing hair and I didn't make it my first year, but my second year that I auditioned, which was the same year I quit cutting hair, I made the New York jets cheerleading team. And a couple of weeks later I was in Aruba with a couple of hand selected girls and I was on cloud nine. It was a dream. Really cool thing was I had no dance background and it's a professional dance team. So I had to work my tail off to maintain a spot on that team. And I maintained it for quite a few seasons. Here is another fun fact. Professional cheerleaders do not make money. They don't make money at practice. You're doing it because you love it. You're doing it for free dance classes. You make money at games. And the max we made was a hundred bucks. Other teams make less. So I've had a lot of comments about this. My professional cheerleaders out there, it is a full-time commitment, part-time job. And the girls that I met are the most inspiring people that I know. They're my best friends that could juggle having a baby, having a full-time job and cheering. If you know a professional cheerleader, she is a badass. I promise you. Anyways, moving on. So last year in the Jets, I moved to New York City and I didn't have a job. I just had this dream that I was going to be a model. Like I was going to be all over billboards, in magazines. That was my dream. I just wanted to be so good at everything I did. And when I decided to be a model, I wanted to be the best. I ended up signing two weeks after I moved into New York City with Wilhelmina Models on their fitness and lifestyle division. Wow. I went on my first casting and I booked it. It was like such a whirlwind. I ended up working with some of the most amazing companies. Eglin's Best, Purdue Chicken, Adidas, Pepsi, Tostitos, Bud Light. Just to name a few. There were just so many. And then my favorite moment modeling. God, I put modeling before everything. It was Valentine's Day. I had canceled on my date. Sorry. He was not very happy about that. But I booked my first 10-page spread and it was my first magazine cover. So within six months of modeling, I was on a magazine cover. I was just like cloud nine, right? Modeling made me so happy. I was so good at it. Side note, magazine editorials, right? You see a girl in a magazine. I was making less than $150 for the entire day. So yes, modeling looks super glamorous, but it's a struggle. Commercials make a lot of money, but also you're going to like a thousand castings just to book that one commercial. Fast forward a couple of years and I realized I am in a career where my entire livelihood is based on how I look and my performance, which I'm very aware of, but I mentally and physically was on this big decline. My happiness was just like slowly being drained. Actually, I was drowning. I was drowning in this wicked eating disorder. And gosh, between getting told that cheerleading practices, every Thursday we got weighed, the scale was out. And my coach says to me, and I quote, you are the heaviest professional cheerleader in the United States. Deadpan. And I look at her and I was like, thank you. I'll work on that. Hindsight. What a freaking accomplishment, right? Hey camper, I'm the heaviest professional cheerleader in the United States. High five, baby. He's going to leave me hanging. All right. I love you. Truth be told, let's see. I was 5'8", 137 pounds. If I was three pounds over that, I would get benched. Happened a lot. I was powerlifting. That's crazy. I also was having clients tell me, at one point, one thing that really gets stuck in my head a lot is I had this one client who told me my shoulders were too broad and that my thighs were too big. And years later, I'm like, do you know how much I'm capable of? So just all these things, being ripped apart all the time. Nothing I did was helping my eating disorder. I can't make this up. I literally took a position on ABC's The Bachelor because I thought it had nothing to do with the TV time or air time. Would have been cool to find a husband. Sure. But honestly, I thought that if I had all those cameras on me at every second of my life, I would overcome my eating disorder. How crazy is that? I had tried every method to try to get over my eating disorder. Inpatient, outpatient, countless therapists, everything. And it's like I just kept getting worse. And obviously, media, show business, that didn't help. And I realized, okay, this is not for me. I left the show very shortly after that. Stopped all of my contracts and completely left the entertainment world. It was the hardest decision I've ever made in my life. But I had to leave one love and one passion to truly find another. And that was myself, because I had totally lost myself. If anyone out there can relate to any of this, I promise you there is light at the end of the tunnel. I literally thought I was going to be stuck like that for the rest of my life. And I can truly say this, I recovered 100%. So do not give up. I really advocate for this stuff. I even did Miss Connecticut United States once. And I signed up two weeks earlier because I just did everything I could to have a platform to help people who felt the way I did. I got first runner up that year. That was so weird. I don't know. There's nothing that hurts me more is to see women who struggle with body image and eating disorders. I want to be a role model to these women. And I really want to show a positive side that being healthy is beautiful inside and out. Really quick thought while we're sitting here right now. So it may look like a negative that I had a challenge that essentially affected my career ending it. But on the other side of that, sometimes there are challenges that help guide us to a time or place or a new pursuit that is better suited for us to fit our desires. So this is a positive for me. This gave me a lot of life perspective but also made me realize that I just have to do what makes me happy and living in a car makes me happy. So out with the modeling and back to the reinvention. How was I going to reinvent myself? So in the next couple months in my New York City apartment, four bedroom, one bathroom, still paying 1400 bucks a month. It's freaking crazy. I knew I had to get out. So I actually got a job as a tour guide. I ended my lease and that summer I ended up in Australia, New Zealand leading teen tours. So for two months that summer, I took teenagers all over Australia, New Zealand and got to share my passion for travel and culture and just connecting with people, especially teenagers. They make me so happy. But while I was there, I had asked the company to book me a one-way ticket because I really wanted to stay there and explore and I had no plans for afterwards as I wasn't modeling anymore or cheerleading. So I got in my rental car and for two months I just lived in my car. Didn't get a single hotel, just made friends, stayed at some friends houses. But that was my first moment, right? That, oh my gosh, I get it now. I had lived in all these different places and I never felt at home. And all of a sudden I was in this car, like cramped in the seat, like I didn't even have a mattress. I was just trying to make something work and I was hiking all over the east coast of Australia and it was like, oh my gosh, I am meant to roam. And it all just clicked. I ended up accepting a position with the same company where I became their road warrior. And what that means is I traveled the United States pretty much full time during the year and went to high schools just to share with kids and the parents, my passions for travel and culture. And that was awesome. And then over the summers, and ever since I have been leading tours in Europe where every three days we're in a new city or a new country and gosh, it is just a dream. And if I can, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. I feel so fulfilled. I mean, don't tell my CEO this, well, I tell her all the time, I would literally do this job for free. Exhausting. A lot of hard work. Oh God, it's such hard work. The stories. And that brings me to now. 2019, 2020, it's the winter. I had just ended a relationship. I was living in Texas and all of my jobs simultaneously just ended. So I started doing trips in the car and initially it was just going to be for a few months and then COVID hit. And when that happened, I remember I was on a trip in Qatar, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. I flew home early and the day I landed, I was told I couldn't go back in my apartment. And I understood my roommate was very susceptible to sicknesses. We didn't know what it was. No tests were available and they were also handicapped. So I just got in my car and left. I didn't know for how long. When I tell you, I didn't have this mattress. I had a mattress topper that I had found. It was broken up into six pieces. I just hit the road with all my things. And I have been living full-time out of my car ever since. Instead of just feeling down on myself, I made the best of it. And I said, I have this dream and I'm going to do it. And it's right now. So here I am. I know this is not everyone's dream. This is my dream. I have so many people telling me I'm not successful or I'm homeless or I need a house or I should get a van or all the things that I'm not doing based on someone else's perspective. And to be honest, I've never felt more at home. So don't feel bad for me. If those were the things I wanted, I'd be doing them. And if you have a dream and maybe if this is your dream, like heck yeah, go chase it. And maybe if you want to have a house, like heck yeah, do it. If you want to get married, do it. Just right now for me, that's like the polar opposite of what I want. And yeah, maybe things will change. We take things day by day. I don't make plans. So maybe one day, you never know. So I guess essentially I live this lifestyle for the simplicity and freedom and mobility. You know, a lot of people look at living in your car as like this lower life. And I, I honestly feel the opposite perspective before you judge people, which brings me to my next common comment, Nikki, why don't you have a van? Well, simply because I don't want one. I suck at parking. I will probably hit something. I definitely will hit something. I can't even tell you how many times I've hit stuff in this car. I just don't want one. I love this setup. I love the fuel economy. I love that. It's simple. I love that. I don't have a lot of things and I downsized. I love that camper loves it. Yeah, camper. He's the cutest thing in the world. So yeah, it works for me. Maybe I'll upgrade later, but at this point in my life, this is what I want. And I love my Prius. Like I love this thing. Gas mileage. Okay. So this Prius will get 45 to 50 miles per gallon pre-build out. So my first six months to a year before I put in the seats, the roof box and the gravel bike, which acts like a parachute. That's what it was after it's about 32. So that's a big swipe. Okay. Another common question. Uh, how do I pay for everything? What are my jobs? Since I was 15, I've had multiple sources of income. I've always been someone who kind of just goes out and tries to get money wherever they can. So doing hair. I also taught fitness at one point. I was a soul cycle instructor in New York city. I taught riding Houston. So sometimes I'll just do like pop-up fitness classes or things like that. The travel stuff, I'm a tour guide, a modern day modeling now. So instead of the modeling, like it used to be, I'll also be the makeup artist and the photographer, things like that. YouTube actually is now a small income, but, um, Hey, if you want to help support us, please subscribe, get your notifications, watch our channel, uh, share with your friends, because we would love it if that was more of an income. So we could give you more videos. You know, really? I just believe that if you love something, chances are you can go out and make a job out of it. Nine times out of 10. I swear you can. I am living proof. How long will I be doing this? Um, I don't know. And that's the beauty of it. Uh, when I started, I didn't know it's been over a year. By the time you see this, it might be multiple years, but my favorite part of this life is we can take things day by day. We can wake up and we can drive somewhere. I can wake up and decide. I want to go hiking. I can wake up and decide. I want to go bike ride. Uh, I wake up sometimes and say, I want to see my family. And I drive 3000 miles across the country to go see them. Truthfully. I think I'll be doing this for a long time, like years, long time. Like I don't see an end, but like we've been talking about, we change our minds, adapt. And if I stop tomorrow, I stopped tomorrow, but I think it's going to be a lot of years. I've just made my way through life with what my parents taught me. And that's if you dream it, you can achieve it with hard work and a positive attitude and a big smile. And chances are, if you meet me or see me, I will have a huge smile on my face, no matter what's going on. That's just who I am. And yeah, like even if I'm down, I just try to smile and the bright side of things. And I hope that you can do the same. And if you're in a situation that maybe isn't optimal, keep your eyes on the prize and your goal. And I really think you can get there. So if you want to live in your car, I hope I'm inspiring you to do that. And if you don't want to live in your car, but you're watching this, I hope that I can inspire you to just follow your dreams, whatever they be. If you have any other questions or comments, please put them below. I love connecting with you guys. Y'all are the best. I've like really, really enjoyed this YouTube journey. Don't forget, like, subscribe, share with your friends, turn on notifications. If you want to support us, we would deeply appreciate it. And I just love building this community. I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you next time. One big thing. Booty shot. How can I even talk when you're just so cute? I love you. I love you. Want to tell our story? Camper is my favorite thing on this planet. Saving and really good work ethic. Work ethic. Work ethic. That's going to take me a while to get work ethic. Oh, there you go. It flowed. Worth it. Work ethic. Can anyone say that right?