♪ (female #1) the three of us, we're all from australia embarking on a 5-week road trip traveling to the united states. (female #2) talking to people that we admire, sharing their story about how they got to where they are now. (female #1) now i don't feel the pressure. but i think when i go home, i'll feel pressure. it sounds like you've got to break away from this parental approval thing. (male #2) was it hard? yeah, but i don't think anything worth doing comes easy. (female #3) if there were no difficult situations, you'd be half a person. (female announcer) state farm has made it possible for this documentary series to be shared on public television stations across the country. "roadtrip nation" would like to sincerely thank our friends at state farm for helping a nation of young people to find their roads in life. like a good neighbor, state farm is there.

"roadtrip nation" would also like to thank the collegeboard for supporting this series. inspiring minds and connecting students to college success. "roadtrip nation" would also like to thank tourism new zealand for bringing the roadtrip experience to the other side of the road in new zealand. cheers to our kiwi mates! ♪ (female #4) people who just do day in, day out without questioning anything, where's the fun in that? you've got to get up every morning and love to do what you do. and you've got to love it. (female #1) i think it's so amazing to meet someone who's completely original in thought. (female #2) i want to be consciously making decisions about my life. (su-yin) i never sat down and thought, "what do i really want to do?" (mariana) i need to discover myself. (male #1) it's not a horse race, this is a marathon. it's the journey that's really going to count. embrace it.

♪ (su-yin) it's been amazing. all of our interviews, i've just been blown away by hospitality, by generosity. i don't know. they seem to just really connect with us. yes, i'm excited about chicago. (mariana) i'm so excited about chicago. ♪ i don't know what to do right now ♪ ♪ or where to go from here-- ♪ (camilla) yeah, i feel a bit more myself now. i don't know. i found it really hard initially. (su-yin) 'cause it's so crazy all the time. you're constantly just being put through a blender and being all mashed up. and that's why i think you get more insight into who you are. (camilla) downtown! this is really quite a cool city. in chicago we have chef homaro cantu. it's a very high-quality restaurant, but the food itself is very unique 'cause it's futurist. yeah, the physics of food and other ways of enjoying it that aren't traditional.

(male #2) very challenging because, you know, imagine walking into a restaurant you don't know anything about it. you don't know anything about the chef and the first thing that you get is a paper menu that you eat. half of the people would get up and walk away. and it was very difficult, you know, having children, wife, new home, but not nearly as hard for me as working for someone else. ♪ (homaro) i grew up in a very poor family. my mother, sister and i were actually homeless for 3 years between the ages of 6 and 9. early on in life, i caused a lot of trouble. i had this pyro thing, which is why i work in a kitchen now. but fast forward to when i'm 12, i move in with my dad. he made me mow the lawn and our lawn was very big. it was like the size of an acre or a hectare, i guess, in australia. and so i also had this innate--

this internal fascination with mechanics. so i decided to take the lawnmower apart one day because i got sick of it running. and i took it apart in the hopes that i would break it. but then i started playing around with it and i started learning about the internal combustion engine. then i started inventing things. just you know, when you live a life of simplicity, we'll call it, you start wondering how you can solve problems. and so, you know, now we fast forward to graduating from high school. i wound up basically living out of my car for about 3 months when i was 17. i was working at this fast food fish restaurant, not really going anywhere in life. and there's this line cook there, his name is charlie harrison, and he said, "you know, you're a pretty good cook. "you know, you seem to love this stuff. "i'm going to culinary school in the fall. you know, you want to sign up for this?" and i'm like, "dude, i'm living out of my car." you know, i could never afford this. and so he's like, "well, you can stay on my couch." so i stayed on this guy's couch for a year. i went to culinary school and then i started working for free

in every restaurant that i could get in the back door of. and one day, i woke up and said, "you know what? "i'm going to go and work for this guy who i think is the greatest chef in the world," who was chef trotter. and i had $200 in my pocket, and i just knocked on his back door. and i said, "i'm willing to work for free and i'm going to do whatever it takes to be your sous chef at this restaurant." you know in his history, he's probably had eight sous chefs. it's just very hard to make it to that level because you're working literally from 9 a.m. 'til 3 or 4 in the morning, 5-6 days a week. but you have to sort of-- even if it's not at work, you have to tweak it on your own time to make it fun. like when i wasn't working two jobs, when i was working one job, i would be inventing things in my house, like the polymer oven. i had a year where my future wife supported me and let me buy any gadget i wanted. nters, with plastics. i actually took apart some of our wedding gifts. she still talks about that, you know,

"i want my espresso maker back." but to create, to cultivate that environment took a lot of dues paying. and we made it work. this being "roadtrip nation," we've decided to make you a dish called "roadkill." this is duck confit. take this, which is a very seasonal beet puree. there's our road. and this is red beet and we're just going to create this sort of splattering effect, and then you have like, sort of, little guts here. and then we have our duck that's been slow cooked right here and edible brain. and then finally, this is your radial tire and then that just kind of goes over here. i consider this living my dream, so i've got no complaints. for a kid who barely made it through culinary school, i think it's okay. i think as long as you're passionate and you can find your creative niche, there's nothing that you can't achieve. and i know that sounds cliche and ridiculous but, you know, this place is living proof. the answers are out there.

you just have to tap into that creative side. you need time to do it. you know, you need personal time. ♪ so this is it? so you guys really drive around the country in this thing? yeah. wow. that's got to build some character, huh? it says, "passion, creativity and desire." that's out of the box. [laughing] (su-yin) there doesn't need to be those barriers that you put up and the logical reasoning that your brain might go through when you're talking yourself out of something. you go out and you try it and you give it your all. and even if it doesn't work, you've learned something. we're going to the ball game, going to the ball game. chicago white sox, kansas city flamencos. it's on! it's on! ♪ so it's one, two, three strikes you're out ♪ ♪ at the old ball game! [cheering] (mariana) i mean, fans usually heckle the umpire,

in australia anyway. there was none of that really. everyone sort of respected the umpire. (camilla) i feel like when i go back, i need to make at least one substantial change to start taking advantage of what this opportunity has given me, 'cause the entrepreneur thing floats around in my head through cooking and helping people. it's so hard to know because i'm really not in my reality at the moment, 'cause i could live a pretty great, sort of mediocre life. but i'd like to live something a bit more impressive to me. ♪ (mariana) today we started our drive in chicago and we drove to cleveland, ohio. and we're in cleveland, ohio, now. tomorrow is rock and roll hall of fame. we'll be talking to terry stewart, who is the ceo and he runs the whole thing.

i'm excited about any of the cities that we go to that have like a good music scene, music history, i really get into. (mariana) he was the hardest interview to book because all i had to go off terry-- and like the reason i wanted to talk to him was i saw him on a video for rock and roll hall of fame. he just seemed really charismatic, but i didn't know what to expect from him. (male #1) most the kids i know that are artistically involved have the confidence or believe in some way or some fashion they'll find themselves. it always terrified me. i have four degrees and never really had any interest in any of them. ♪ i did mergers and acquisitions. i was a banker. i hated all that stuff. and i was miserable except in my off hours when i was chasing whatever that i liked to do for fun, which was music and comic books and movies.

and what happened was i lost my job, left my wife and i was homeless. i had no place to live. and i went to a bar to drink, which is always a good answer for things. and the bartender heard me talking to one of my friends about the situation, and he gave me a place to live. (camilla) what were you doing in that year? looking for a job. and you obviously held out because you were looking for a particular job. no, nobody offered me a job. i was looking for more jobs in mergers and acquisition and just luck stepped in. a guy that was in a search from headhunter knew all my passions about comic books and movies and music. and he's the one that said, "marvel comics are looking "for somebody who actually reads comic books that has a business background." and i went, "holy..." if i could ever do something like that where finally, i went nuts. once you get somebody like me going on comic books or records, i become the biggest geek in the world, and it terrified 'em.

and i was 45 years old, 44 years old, before i became president of marvel comics, spiderman's boss. you don't want to be put in that position of luck making a difference in your life at a later age. be in charge of your destiny now. i really believe philosophically that life turns out for the best as long as you're doing most of the right things. it's often not the best that you thought it would be. it's some left turn that put you in some place, but it's related to something that you liked or you cared about. but the risk-taking is the hardest thing. how far do you put yourself out on that limb? but you're bulletproof. you know, you're immortal right now. you really are. because you've got time to make up for almost any mistake you make. you've got the tools. the part you don't have is this intestinal fortitude to take these risks and then focusing on it and then trying to march toward it as opposed to avoiding it. there's no time frame around this stuff. i truly--i really don't think there is. that's something we've noticed. we all have set time frames to everything. you could spend 10 years trying these things, you'd still be no more than like 35

and careers still happen at 35. i had an extraordinary ride and it all happened later in my life. and i was like you, i was scared to death. it's not a horse race. this is a marathon. it's the journey that's really going to count. you know, that's going to be the most exciting part. embrace it. peace and soul, rock and roll. trust the universe, trust yourself. you know, you'll get there, okay? ciao. ♪ (mariana) we're going to new york, which is somewhere i've wanted to go ever since i was little. new york, new york! we're going to interview eli quinters and get me tattooed.

whenever i get a tattoo or whatever, it reaffirms that i'm alive. i feel liberated and, yeah, there's something empowering about that. howdy. hi. i'm mariana. nice to meet you. hi! (eli) i started learning to tattoo halfway through going to art school. i met a kid going to art school that me and him became real good friends. and he started teaching me my sophomore year. and by my junior year, half way through my junior year, i was tattooing professionally. (mariana) because of that whole permanent nature of the choice you're making on your skin, do you apply that sort of same element of thought into your life? (eli) i think that would require too much thinking ahead. there's nothing that's permanent. i realize that. just as soon as you think you've got it figured out, something happens and it totally changes everything, you know? you did good. you sound like a champ. yeah, yeah, nice to meet you.

nice meeting you too. (mariana) i guess the irony in that statement of "nothing's permanent" and here i am getting tattooed which is permanent on my skin, but i think i'll constantly be looking back at this experience and reanalyze it and re-conceptualize it and take something different from it every time. (su-yin) we're getting ready to go see elaine kwon. we're in the upper west side of new york. now i don't feel the pressure but i think when i go home, i'll feel pressure if i don't have something a bit more concrete sorted out. my dad would actually just be like, "you know, what are you going to do now?" [piano music playing] elaine kwon, i've been really excited to meet her just because it seems like

she's come from a very similar sort of situation. ♪ [cheering] the last note. ♪ i started playing the piano when i was 4 years old. and my father is--he just wanted us to succeed. you know, he still does. but he says, "not only are you asian and a minority, "but you're also female, so you have to be doubly-- "work doubly hard and be doubly better to even get attention or get the recognition." you know, so that's--it's a lot of burden for little kids

to carry around, but we did. and you know, i really did a lot of piano. it's basically that was my childhood, performing at a young age and doing competitions. and you know, it was really tough when it came time to make a decision about college, you know, and about what we're supposed to do. and i'm supposed to become a medical doctor. i had absolutely no experience or no aptitude or anything. but they had a vision of me being stable and secure and having a nice profession, and i didn't listen. so you know, i went into music and kind of made a break actually. what do you mean by you made a break? when all the schools were already decided, i was already set up to go to university of washington and enroll in pre-med, and i had just done

a competition in texas. sort of i had a back door. this was, you know, all planned. and just because i-- i just didn't want-- i didn't want to go into medicine, so i had that setup and i had a very tough conversation with my father. and then i just left and decided i'm going to follow my heart. that's what i thought, "i'm going to really, absolutely follow my heart." 'cause otherwise, i'm going to feel sick inside. (su-yin) ever since i think the age of maybe 15 or 16 when i wanted to study music and not physics, my communication with my dad has broken down ever since. like i-- they've all been telling me-- everyone's been telling me that it's important for me when i go home to sit down with him, again, and tell him, you know, catch him up, kind of, on my life.

but i'm not sure if-- like how important is it to-- 'cause i still live at home. how important do you think it is to kind of get away? (elaine) for me, it was very important. i slip back into old habits and old ways of feeling when i'm back. sometimes the only way to really follow your own path is to create physical distance. yeah, it doesn't mean that you have to love them any less or have necessarily emotional distance. but physical distance so that you can find yourself in your own space. and did you leave on good terms? like there was still that pressure there because you said that-- oh, there's still the pressure. oh, absolutely. oh yeah, absolutely. i really truly know it's because parents care. they just care and they just want you to be happy and stable and safe. but yeah, the pressure continued for me to find a full-time teaching job somewhere

as a university professor and to do this. and then i would be chairman, then i would become president of the university, you know, like following-- like they already got it, you know, formulated out how the path will go. and i haven't done that. (mariana) wow! what a brilliant photo. hi ya! (elaine) i jumped off a box, i don't know, 50 or 60 times. i had always wanted to do martial arts. finally, at age 25, i was getting my doctorate. there was a taekwondo program and i started and i just-- and i thought, "well, i'm so old now. "i wish i had done it, you know, earlier." but it's okay, and i love it so much. and i trained and i-- and you know, i got my black belt-- second-degree black belt-- you know, and i competed and won things and i'm still doing it. i'm training shaolin kung fu now, and i started that when i was, how old? forty, forty-one. you know, this is where i thought, "i'm just going to-- whatever strikes me, "i'm going to really try to explore and not let fear

or 'oh well, you shouldn't do that,' get into my head." i did all kinds of things. i did some fitness modeling. i got the nike asia ad campaign. (su-yin) how did you get into that from-- was that because of your taekwondo? yeah, it was. i just answered an ad, "nike looking for women ages 18 to 23 for all different kinds of sports." and so i was 37 at the time. i thought, "okay, i'll go." i'll go for martial arts. and i got through and i went through-- and the casting director didn't-- i don't think she put my age on there. you have so much time. you really do. i mean, so much time. and plus, like, what's too old? how someone's supposed to be at a certain age is invented. somebody had said, "oh, this is how you should be when you're such-and-such an age." so we don't have to do that. you don't have to do that.

you know, you can redefine what it means to be a woman at any age really. ♪ (su-yin) we've spoken to almost 30 people with different ideas about life philosophy, and i think i just have to take it more as he's my dad, he's looking out for me, but he's just, you know, one other person with an idea about life. it feels like this roadtrip has been-- it's like i've gone through this period of time avoiding thinking about future goals and where i want to be. like i went through that time of floating, and then now i've had this condensed version of thinking about it all the time every day. so it's like weird. it's like that weird reverse. and so when i go home, i'm just hoping that some of this will remain a little bit so that i'll, you know,

be able to consciously keep thinking about it. (terry) it sounds like you've got to break away from this parental approval thing, and you're gonna have to take risks. and that's one of the risks. but you know, you've got to trust in yourself doing the right thing. and you love him and he loves you and, in the long run, it's going to come back home. it'll be okay. was it hard? yeah, but i don't think anything worth doing comes easy. if you really want to see change happen, you're going to have to work up against some pretty big forces. nobody gets through without conflict. if there were no stress or difficult situations, you'd be half a person. (mariana) we all feel so different to what we've known and what we technically ran away from. and when we were there, my best friend toby called me from sydney. and he was asking me about, you know, what i'd been up to, and i had no words. all i could say was like, "uh, i'm in new york

and i'm eating ice cream." it was just like the most amazing things have been happening to me for the past 5 weeks. how do i even begin to tell you what i've just been through? (male announcer) "roadtrip nation" extends beyond the program you just watched. it's a movement that empowers others to create their own roadtrip experiences. here's a quick snapshot into that movement. ♪ (male #4) i've never really done a cold call before. i've never actually like-- i've had an interview before, but i was the one answering the questions, never asking. (jason) dr. king worked at galaxy i.t. last year and he was working on a search engine, a new type of search engine. so i want to know what got him interested in programming and what got him interested in actually coming to fresno. when you were younger, say about our age-- did you always have confidence that this was what you were going to do? i invented this software and i'm not a software developer.

so i have achievements which give me confidence that i can do things. the people who are successful in life are not necessarily the cleverest students, it's the most determined. if you're thinking in terms of a particular career, my suggestion would be don't. one must be flexible. look for opportunities everywhere. you know that there are problems, but you can overcome them. (lea) what i was doing was just going to a school, me going to college, i didn't have any idea of doing anything else. he really blew my mind. he gave us like a bunch of insight of how to look at the world differently. it was a lot more than i thought. (mariana) we're entering the last week of the shoot. nine days 'til this trip is over. i'm not ready to go home. (male #5) i guess there's a certain risk in achieving something that is so colossal.

you say, "what do you do after that to top that?" (su-yin) there doesn't need to be the logical reasoning that your brain might go through when you're talking yourself out of something. (male #6) i will always remember how that feels to be so passionate 'cause i think that the questioning doesn't ever stop. (female announcer) check out more adventures and interviews from the road. visit roadtripnation.com. online, you can apply to take a roadtrip of your own or bring "roadtrip nation" into your classroom. the "roadtrip nation" series is available on dvd ♪ we watched it all in disbelief ♪ ♪ at the train station on christmas eve. ♪ ♪ a tragic tale a gruesome scene ♪ ♪ a bitter end for the chief of police. ♪

♪ it was a blessing and a curse. ♪ (announcer) state farm has made it possible for this documentary series to be shared on public television stations across the country. "roadtrip nation" would like to sincerely thank our friends at state farm for helping a nation of young people to find their roads in life. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. "roadtrip nation" would also like to thank the collegeboard for supporting this series. inspiring minds and connecting students to college success. "roadtrip nation" would also like to thank tourism new zealand for bringing the roadtrip experience to the other side of the road in new zealand. cheers to our kiwi mates! cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com