By Molly Magennis
A Hobsons Bay mum of two has self-published her own children’s book, inspired by a life-changing caravan trip she embarked on with her family.
In December 2020, Jess Tsigros and her family bought a caravan, packed up their bags and left their Altona home after re-evaluating their life.
“We did a bit of a self-audit and we realised that the dream house isn’t making us happy,” she said.
The family embarked on a nine-month journey and went three-quarters of the way around the country, visiting places like South Australia and camping on beaches in the outback, before returning home in August this year.
“For us the whole journey wasn’t just the trip, it was buying the van and changing our life,” she said.
“It was very much a spiritual kind of experience.”
Ms Tsigros has always had a love and passion for writing, but it was being on the open road that gave her the time and inspiration to work on her book.
“I had so much time and space to think and enjoy and be inspired by the outdoors and obviously not having the distractions of being back at home and work and everything else,” she said.
“I could just hone in and focus on my book which was something that I’d always wanted to do but it just really came to life through just being inspired on the road.”
‘We Live in a Caravan’ is a reflection of life with meaningful values, Ms Tsigros said.
“It’s about family togetherness, it’s about cherishing experiences over possessions.”
“It’s also a tool to inspire family travel and inspire people to live and create the dream life that they’ve always wanted and if we’ve done it you can too.”
Although this is Ms Tsigros’ debut book, there are definitely more projects in the pipeline.
“It’s not the end for me, it’s really the beginning of a career in creation and book writing,”
Details: jesstsigros.com.au/home
