u.s. interviewing people who are living life by doing what they love. (female #1) i'm here on this trip to talk to people whave taken unconventional routes in life. (male #1) i have a lot of interests and i want to see how they can come together to make me successful on my own terms. (female #2) i'm looking for different perspectives on what other people h gone through and how they got where they are to. (grant) i was like you, i didn't know what i wanted to do, but i wanted to see what's out there. (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 define their own roads in life. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. (male announcer) roadtrip nation would also like to thank

the college board for supporting this series. the college board: connect to college success. (male announcer) roadtrip nation is also made possible by at&t: helping connect students to success in school, in the workforce, and in life. (female narrator) everywhere you turn, people try to tell you who to be and what to do. but what about deciding for yourself? roadtrip nation is a movement that empowers people to define their own roads in life. this past summer, teams of roadtrippers crossed the country, hoping to gain insight into their lives. on the road, they met all kind of interesting people to learn how they found their way. this is roadtrip nation. (tina) i'm going to check the oil.

(tina) i can't believe we still have under a month left. every day on the road is like a week in real life. it's so jam-packed full of stuff and adventures and people that i just can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store. ♪ ♪ (calvin) when i was trying to find people to interview i was like, "what am i interested in?". now i'm realizing everyone has a story, so i'm just going in, hoping that something really great comes out of it, and something that's also destabilizing to what i previously thought, and challenges me to think harder about where i'm going. [phone ringing]

(woman on phone) hello. hi, may i please speak with heather? (woman on phone) speaking. hi, this is vanessa from roadtrip nation. we got off the 1 and we just passed mcfrasier highway. (heather) okay, so you're close. i'll see you when you get here. (vanessa) alright. thank you so much. (vanessa) heather is a prop stylist, so she is a story creator for a lot of editorials and country magazines. (calvin) cool. (calvin) marigolds, tiger lilies, peonies, apples. (vanessa) llamas! [dog barking] hi, i'm heather. (calvin) great meeting you, heather. hi, i'm vanessa. (heather) hi, vanessa.

(heather) this is the whole vegetable garden over here. so you did some styling, is that how you found me? (vanessa) well, yeah. i'm an assistant... i'm a production assistant in fort lauderdale for a really small company that does infomercials. i was assisting the food stylist, which i really liked, but i also would watch the prop stylist, and i'm like, "i wanna do that!" like, i like arranging things and shopping for things. (vanessa) do you want some help? (heather) sure, i'll give you the glasses. (vanessa) okay. (tina) where were you at our age? like 22, 23 years old? i was working at a florist in vancouver, because i didn't know what i wanted to do either. i wanted to be a photographer, but i didn't get the job and i got the job at the florist's. the lady who did all the floral work went away for a week, and i started tinkering

and i ended up making better stuff than she did. i started doing all of their stuff, and from there they laid me off. i started my own business and i just did weddings and happy events. i wouldn't do anything sad like a funeral. i would do weddings and parties. and i was great at it and i did it for about ten years. and it was pretty fun. so i sort of stumbled into that. and that's why we wanted land, i wanted to plant flowers, and be martha stewart back in the 90s. [laughter] i wanted to plant everything for weddings, but the reality is everything is full of bugs and it crawls out on the ta (calvin) where did you go when you decided you didn't want to do flower arranging anymore? what happened? oh, i invited-- victoria magazine used to be my favorite magazine when i was doing flowers. it was all very womanly and entrepreneurial and inspiring. i sent them an email and invited them for blueberry pie and tea, 'cause i thought it'd get promotion for my wedding business. and they came! so i was like,

"wow, they flew up from new york?" so i ran around like a maniac fixing the place up and making it look perfect, and doing all these little sets and things. and the lady who came...she was so nice. and she's like, "you should be a stylist." and i said... "well, what is that?" and she goes, "well, it's what you did. "you make these little scenes around your yard. and you've made pies and done all this little staging." she goes, "you'd get hired for that." and i was like, "that's a job?!" [laughter] that's awesome!" [laughs] 'cause i had no idea. so yeah, i did it and i just got in touch with some canadian magazines to start. it was an accident. i fell into it, i didn't know it was a job, making little vignettes and making pies and things like that. you never know where you're going to go, or what you're going to do. your life just keeps getting taken in these different directions. i have one more question: can we still have some blueberry pie?

oh, the raspberry pie? [laughter] [inaudible conversation] (calvin) so, you invited people from new york to come to your house for tea and pie? [laughter] (heather) that's how it all started. see, you never know. you invite somebody and you never know what's going to happen. " be brave and do what scares you most. it makes you stronge". happy travels! (tina) thanks so much. ♪ (vanessa) i think i'm so fearful of things because i've had a really easy life. just, like, insanely easy. i mean, it's been great, but a bit debilitating to be strong when i really need to be strong. calvin and i talked a lot on the phone before the trip, and he's told me a lot about his life.

and he'll tell me and i'll just be like... [making speechless sound] his past is just so different from mine. i've really never had to worry about much. so i'm just constantly reminded of how much i can and how much i should, and that creates confidence in myself. [calvin singing whitney houston's " i have nothing" ] (calvin) did you ever see, um... waiting to exhale ? ♪ we don't really live in a that allows young people to explore it in a way that gives them more of an understanding of who they are.

our route to jackson hole includes passing through yellowstone. i've never been to this part of the country before. (calvin) my thoughts are just so expansive. and the world's stretched out forever on either side of us. all i wanted to do was just reflect on the time that i was having and how it was changing me. i realized that the road allows for that space so perfectly because you're just driving. you're just going forward. i don't really know what i want to get out of this because that's what i ask myself every time i look outside of the window. every time i'm sitting in the driver's seat, taking us forward to our next destination, i think, "who are you? what is it that you want? what do you want after this?" and i don't know but i keep going forward. [cows mooing]

(vanessa) oh my gosh. (tina) what? (vanessa) we're surrounded by cows. (calvin) i knew i heard cows earlier. (vanessa) did you feel them? (tina) life was so unpredictable. opening up my blinds every morning to a new scene. i open up my window and i can see the grand teton valley. (calvin) this has been the most surreal place i've ever been to. [phone ringing] hi, you've reached grant jake golliher at diamond cross ranch. thanks for your message. (tina) we were hoping to get an interview with a horse whisperer named grant here in the grand teton valley, but we just keep on getting voicemails. this is where we started our trip. and now we are... here. right here.

(tina) it was really funny... we were sitting here after breakfast and a fellow with a cap came in. (grant) what's your story? (vanessa) he came into our rv outside the cafe and was asking what we were all about. and he was like, "i'm a horse whisperer", and we were like, "are you grant? because we were trying to talk to a horse whisperer yesterday." (grant) it must be god. [laughter] (grant) i'm going to have some breakfast and if you want to come over any time... go back out here to the main highway. make a left, cross the bridge, and go about two miles, and you see that big red barn? (tina) yeah. (grant) that's me. (tina) oh, wow. (grant) that's diamond cross ranch. (tina) buffalo! so how can i help you? [laughter]

(calvin) when you were 22, 23, what were you doing? i grew up in colorado on a farm. and, uh, i knew that's not where i wanted to stay. i was really easily influenced by my peers and then led down the road to doing things i knew were wrong, but i couldn't say no because i didn't have good boundaries 'cause i didn't want to be rejected. because i had a tough childhood. my mother was mentally ill... went through several terrible depressions. slashed her wrists ten times with a butcher knife and was bleeding to death with four little kids-- and she just had a lot of problems, so i had problems. you know, when we as parents have problems our kids inherit those problems. unfortunately. until you break the cycle. we can't expect anybody to do that for us.

we've gotta be the ones that say, "i'm gonna, you know, face this thing, and it's gonna stop with my generation." and so i worked for the railroad for a year, saved my money and bought a couple of mules, and rode one and packed one and went cross-country by myself and came up here to wyoming, riding cross-country, 19 years old. here i was, just this kid. i thought i was an adult, but i was just a kid. and so i left and ran off by myself. running from that, but really i was running from myself. i was running from my own problems. when you left colorado, did you have any idea what was in store for you? no, i had no idea what was in store for me. i didn't even have a good map. i had a highway map, $500, and a pack full of food. and that was the toughest winter.

i lived on beans and pancakes, and i was really lonely. it was terrible. but you know, that was just part of the journey. (calvin) when you found those hardships, what was it that kept you going forward? was it the people? no, it was just the dream of the adventure. you know, even my own dad didn't give me any encouragement in what i was doing. he thought i was crazy. and, you know, in many ways he was right. a young person...i could have died out there. you know, my dad...he was a great guy in many ways, but i saw him settle down to a job that he really hated. he had to work night shift in a power plant, and he lost his hearing because of it. there's a lot of people that work a job they don't like all their life so they can retire when they're old

and do something they like. well, i wanted to flip-flop that. i always wanted to make a living doing what i enjoyed doing, which was this. you know, punching cows... that's moving cows around in the country. being a cowboy, training horses. (vanessa) when was that moment that you realized your relationship between horses and yourself was so special, and that you could relate that to relationships with other people? people will reaffirm what your calling or your gift is. like, "you're really good at photography. you're really good at writing or art" or whatever. you will hear that. they're not just flattering you, they're really speaking into your life, you know? people said, "grant has a gift with horses, he can get along." and i could get along with horses. i didn't know much, but i had a way of getting along with them. so i developed that, and it made me feel good about myself.

and so, having been through that, i just developed this passion to help other people through horses, see who they are. (vanessa) what have you learned about yourself in working with horses? lots of things. certainly that we have things that we need to work on, personally. if we don't work on that personal growth stuff, then we'll never go forward in life. because horses will humble you. you know, they'll show you eventually that you're not so great. especially if you think you are. one time i was threatening to quit. i'd been training horses for a while, and i was frustrated. i didn't feel right about how i was treating the animals. even though i was doing it like everybody else does it, and having some success. there was something in me that just wasn't right. the consequences were abusive.

you know, i don't know how else to put it. i've seen a lot of abuse. i've done some things that were abusive...didn't mean to. i liked horses, but i've done some things to horses that i'm really ashamed of. the reason we abuse is because we're frustrated. anger unchecked brings abuse. the times that i've abused horses was when i was frustrated 'cause i didn't understand what to do. i had a horse that just kept digging holes in the ground. you'd tie him up and he'd dig a hole in the ground. paw, you know? so our answer was to hobble him. you know, put hobbles on him. which is okay, you know? they can't really dig. i left him tied up and went to lunch, and i came back and he was laying on the ground dead. it was a really good horse, and how i felt-- i knew i'd done that to the horse because i had to show that horse that he couldn't dig,

but i didn't give him a safe place to learn it. if i'd have had my emotions under control instead of having to prove that-- you know, show that horse. what i like people to do is to see how it relates to their lives, you know? i challenge people when they see me work with a horse, to see where they see themselves. that we have things that we need to work on personally. and so i began to pray and ask god to show me a better way, or i was going to give it up. and about that time, the guy i was working for took me to a clinic that ray hunt was doing. and when i saw what ray could do with horses i knew that i had been missing it and i wanted that. (grant) okay, well we're going to

work with a colt now, so you'll kind of get to see what the whole horse whispering thing's about. i'm gonna drive these horses around a little bit. i'll show you how this really began. these are unbroke horses. (grant) [laughing] watch your camera. (grant) it's so easy to get stuck along the way because you're afraid. and, like, fear will say, "i guess i just better settle for this, because i'd like to go there but i'm afraid." and i think our lives are always being challenged. every time i step in that round pin, i'm facing my fear, believe me. i look confident on the outside. i'm screaming on the inside. (grant) see all the trouble?

see the trouble in this horse? he's afraid of me. (grant) life is all about facing your fear. i think that's the thing i've gained. this is what i've gained, and i've been thinking about this lately, a lot. when you step out there, even though you're afraid-- we're all afraid. when you step out there, something's going to be there to hold you up, and you'll get through. and i mean even when you don't know what to say, you don't know the answer to the question, and you just feel this pressure around you and it's just almost overwhelming. just hang in there and it'll come. 'cause it always does. the right words will come, the right movement with a horse. (grant) i'm trying to convince the horse that i'm okay, i'm not going to hurt him. i'd like him just to smell me... that's the first touch. that's the first smell right there, see? (grant) i really was like you. i didn't know what i wanted to do. i wanted to be a mountain man, and that moved me

into the horses that i found out was-- really, my passion is training horses. and then, from years of training horses, i found that i was training the horses but the horses were training me to be a better person. and so the focus has gone from adventure, to finding my passion, which is horses, and training horses, and moved on into people. so now it's really all about people. and see... it was people i was running from when i ran away. really, i was running from myself. i was running from my own problems. and you can't run from your own problems. we're on the planet here. it's round. you know, you can go 'round and 'round and 'round, but you can't get away from yourself. "face your fear, follow your dreams, and never, never give up. trust god." (tina) thank you so much.

(grant) you're welcome. (vanessa) i think i have to think about what just happened to me for, like, a little bit. (calvin) it's amazing to just hear so many people say, "well, i just follow what i love to do and then something fell into my lap." and oftentimes they had to work really hard afterwards and they weren't sure what was going to happen. first of all, that's a little scary to me because i wonder, "when the going gets tough, can you hack it?" (vanessa) when grant talked about fear, it wasn't like he's cured of fear. he still has to face his fear every time he goes out onisorse (calvin) part of me ss, "yafra h

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