best friends and i are going on a six-week road trip. (male #1) getting advice from people who we feel are really influential. (female #1) this could be the opportunity for us to figure it out. (female #2) it's just hard for me to be my own motivator. (male #1) i constantly feel like i'm spread too thin. (female #1) there's a lot of pressure to do well. (kary) it's not that i have to pick a course for my life and i'd better get it right, right away. 'cause you can always back up and take a new fork. (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. 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 kinds of interesting people to learn how they found their way. this is roadtrip nation. alright, um, this is my first time sitting in front of the camera, and i have to say

it feels a little bit awkward...but, oh well. oh no! oh, is it gonna...? okay, now it's working. awesome. (male #1) alright, i'm at a truck stop on my lunch break, and we're going to call a few people and see wht happen. [phone ringing] hi, my name's aaron curtis. my name's liz agosto. my name's autumn o'brien, and a few friends and i are going on a road trip this summer. ...interviewing people who we believe followed their passions. (aaron) ...getting advice from people who we feel are really influential. and we were hoping to talk with you if you have some free time. (woman on phone) what made all three of you want to do this? (aaron) good question. we were all born and raised in montana, so we're from really small towns. and to go travel the united states and meet with people that you look up to-- that's just priceless to all three of us.

so we are just entering stevensville. i think there's about two thousand people...maybe. (autumn) my class where i grew up was really, really small. there were about twelve people when i was there. but once the class graduated there were only eight. (autumn) this is me trying to get to my house in our driveway. it's kind of tough sometimes. like the cows, jackie? (aaron) liz and autumn and i have known each other for almost ten years now. we all went to school together at the university of montana. technically we should have been graduating. (liz) autumn's like, "i'm lazy." that was her excuse. i was like, "i'm poor, i had to take a semester off." and aaron's like, "i'm graduating this year," and we're like, "you're a stupid overachiever." so the three nicknames are, obviously: poor, lazy, and overachiever. (liz) between the three of us,

i'm, like, the levelheaded, realistic one. i mean, my parents had seven kids. it's not like we were rolling in the money, you know? (liz) i was the only one in my family to graduate from college, my parents included. there's a lot of pressure from my family to do well. i get it all the time: "how much money does a waitress make, liz?" "not a lot, mom." "are you gonna join the military? "what are you gonna do? you got this degree... (liz) "why don't you have a job in it now?" (aaron) liz has so much potential. she's so smart and she's just a little apprehensive about stepping out into all of that. even though i know she'd do really well, i think she's scared about it because she's born and raised in stevensville, and you can't help it, you know? (liz) i feel like i'm stuck in a rut, like i'm just spinning my wheels right now. i'm ready to catch something and go.

(autumn) look at you two working hard. (liz) look at you hardly working. (autumn) [gasps] i am filming! autumn just doesn't want to work. that's why we call her "lazy." (autumn) i mean i do...do things like sleep in really late, but it's mainly because they're so goal-driven. and me...i never really look at things too much with timelines. (aaron) she reminds me of, like, the starving artist, that's really brilliant, you know? but spends more of their time reflecting and thinking on the things, rather than pursuing them. (autumn) i have one more year until i get my psych degree, but i started integrating more classes that i wanted, rather than psych classes. and that's why i've been in school for, like, six years. if autumn o'brien wants to do something, she can do it. (liz) it's when she doesn't have her mind made up that she'll hem and haw and pull the lazy card on you. like with school: if she really wanted to get

her psychology degree she'd have it by now. (autumn) i think it's just hard for me to be my own motivator. (autumn) that's something i worry about a lot, actually. will i ever have that moment where i'm a little more dedicated to what i want to do instead of just wishing it? "mom!" (autumn's mom) "what?" "you wanna come shove the towels in?" (autumn) oh my gosh. (autumn) how do you practice for such things? so, i'm on my lunch break at work. going to try to sneak in a few cold calls. calling oprah winfrey! my nickname, "overachiever", stems from trying too hard. oh, they disconnected me. i won't be had that easily. (aaron) i want to direct a movie, be a journalist... i want to be a politician, i want to write a book... i want to do everything!

and i don't know why anybody shouldn't try... (aaron) i get nervous about the fact that i have all these great ideas but none of them are going to come to fruition. i recently moved on to a marketing coordinator job for platypus flosser. (liz) but i don't think it's necessarily what he wants to be doing. you know, he's in missoula, montana. (autumn) he likes to have something to do to make him feel comfortable. (aaron) but i'm so lucky to have the job, because it's hard to get a job right now anyway. who would you pick? who would you interview? maybe some type of professional athlete. i know roger staubach i'd probably like to talk to. what about any professional wrestlers? oh, yeah. yeah, that... well, i don't know about hulk hogan, you know? or ric flair, "the nature boy", might be good to interview. doesn't he have a bunch of bright-colored things hanging down? uh-huh... oh man, you'd pick him?

you'd pick gold dust, wouldn't you? no, i would not pick gold dust, and i think you know why. you would! i would not! [laughter] okay, i'm not quite sure how to kind of handle the gay thing. i've never told my dad. i just feel bad going into it and telling somebody something that will make their mind implode. when he says things like, "your wife someday..." or like, "when you get married to some woman..." then i'm like, "man, you don't have any idea." and i can't shatter that dream. there are probably three or four people in stevensville that everybody knows are gay, and they all talk about them. you know? like, "they're the gay one." i really think he needs to get out of montana. i think that would really launch him in so many different ways. (liz) growing up in montana... it's a trap. they call missoula the "velvet coffin"

because it's so easy to go in, but so hard to get out of. it's so easy to stay because it's nice (liz) and you know people and your family's here-- that after a while you know you gotta get out. (liz) you just gotta leave. otherwise you're just going to work some dead-end job, then popping out a few kids-- which, if that appeals to you, that's great. but that's not exactly what i...that's not my dream. (aaron) so for la we still need kary mullis. (aaron) we're leaving from los angeles and we're going all the way through texas. (liz) going through the grand canyon... i'd love to see the grand canyon. we're going to new orleans. it's going to suck getting all hot and everything, but we can deal with it. through knoxville and atlanta... chicago's right here. we're going to be down here in kentucky. new york city. i've never been to a huge city before. (aaron) this is going to be us going places we know nothing about.

a huge culture shock, and it's going to be all so different. ♪ ♪ (autumn) [excitedly] oh, i see it! [laughing] i wave at my bag! look at what we have, you guys! (aaron) look at our luggage! this is out of control. (autumn) taxis only. (aaron) let's go, jump in! go! oh, i like it already! that's awesome! (aaron) "enjoy the journey, and like the band journey said,

'don't stop believing.'" [laughter] (aaron) let's move in! (autumn) yay! hey pull that out. pull that out. pull that out. [laughter] yes! are you seeing what she brought? [laughter] (autumn) i'm exhausted! [liz sneezes] excuse me. bless your heart, dear elizabeth. today we're learning how to drive the rv. i actually had a nightmare about it last night. just me being like, "i don't want to drive on the freeway!" (aaron) are you guys ready? (aaron) i've so got this, i'm feeling good. (autumn) oh have i prayed today? (liz) [laughter] (aaron) liz, shut your face over there. (autumn) crank it. crank it. (aaron) come on, come on, come on. good job!

(liz) victory dance it! (aaron) dance it! give it a dance! (aaron) shake it. oh, hey, there you go. (aaron) nice work. mark it! (whole team) yay! (aaron) driving a 34-foot rv in one of the biggest cities in the world was really challenging. (autumn) when the lanes were merging together but people were still like, zoom, zoom, and you're like, "what do i do?" [laughing] i can't believe she just flipped us off! (autumn) i think of driving on the interstate in montana, and it's so open you never have to worry about it. (aaron) it really has been like a three-person driving experience, because all three people really have to be on their toes. oh, uh, thank you. okay, hold on...

you're going to get over right now. (aaron) we did it, folks! (aaron) we are on venice beach right now. (liz) i've never been here. (aaron) none of us have been here before. (aaron) it's completely living up to the image i had in my mind. (autumn) it's crazier than i could have thought actually. (autumn) ...a lot of people. this would be a huge event in montana, but this is probably pretty normal. hi, can we get a picture with you? sure. thank you! (aaron) i can't imagine pulling up to this beach and suddenly performing, you know? you're thinking, "how do i start? how do i get people's attention?" (male #2) when i started on this beach, i got out of gangs and saw central los angeles, and chose to come here and make people laugh for a living. i'm just being happy, and i've noticed that

being happy...other people be happy. you know, i see other people smiling now. i'm looking forward to just meeting these people, because right now it's very surreal. (autumn) the way we're going to change from right now to the middle of the trip and the end of the trip-- how right now we're just excited about doing it, and the more we go down it, to just see that change... ♪ (autumn) i'm excited to see how much this costs. (liz) this is our first interview. we're all a little nervous, a little excited. (aaron) my boss suggested kary mullis. she had his book, dancing naked in the mind field . and i just started reading it and it was really, really good. and immediately i was like, "oh, we gotta get this guy!"

(autumn) so we just drove down into corona del mar, and we actually found a nice convenient parking spot. (liz) i think that deserves a victory dance? (autumn) yep! let me stretch. (aaron) i like your little stretch turning into a dance. (female #3) hey there. (whole team) hi! (female #3) come on in. i'm aaron. and i'm autumn. nice to meet you! (aaron) you guys live in an absolutely beautiful place. (autumn) yeah, it's gorgeous! (female #3) isn't it neat? before we begin i ju want to say i'm really,really, really excited to talk to you! like...yeah, i'm already feeling it. (liz) when did you find out that you were interested in chemistry? when i was a little boy.

i figured out how to make a really cool rocket fuel and decided that frogs yearned for space. but i was going to get him back alive. i had a parachute, and he was comfortable, and he came back...he was kind of freaked out! (aaro) you brought him back alive? oh yeah, i did it over and over again. i developed the whole system, it was really cool. (autumn) how would you describe the process of going from that-- being a little kid who just liked to do those crazy things to it becoming the thing you were that passionate about? basically i just didn't ever change, i'm still that little kid. that's the secret. i mean, i decided i liked chemistry early on. i said, "do you want to go to duke, which is close? "mit, which is cold? or do you want to go to berkeley, where...naked girls." [laughter] it's a pretty straightforward kind of a thing. so i stayed there for seven years,

and they finally ran me out with a ph.d. i married someone in the last year and she decided to go to medical school, so we moved to kansas city. and i started working with some pediatric cardiologists that dealt with...anytime there was a preemie born in kansas they would bring him in by helicopter to the kansas city medical center, usually. he was like, blue. but i ended up coming back to california because my wife was pretty much through, but she was definitely through with me, and... i didn't know exactly what i was going to do after that. i thought, for the summer i'm not going to do anything, i'll work in the restaurant, maybe. and then i said, "i have to do something serious now." and that's when i went over to uc san francisco and got that job killing rats, basically, for their brains-- studying the opiate receptors that we have, and all these peptides-- i was kind of getting into peptide chemistry.

this guy came over to give a seminar from genentech, which had just started, and he was talking about how they made an artificial, single strand of dna-- made it double-stranded. stuck it in the bacteria...fooled it. the bacteria made it into a peptide. and i said, "i'm not going to learn how "the peptides in the bacteria do it. i'm going to learn how to make the dna." so that's when i sort of changed. i said "okay, i'll go to the library and see how you make dna." ♪ there's a few moments in your life-- say, when you're called up on the stage in stockholm to get your nobel prize-- you feel like, "i think i did right!", you know? but you're immediately saying, "now what am i going to do?"

now you can launch frogs, or you can become an astrophysicist if you want to. and it took me about five or ten years to find something else that i thought was worthy of putting a lot of effort into. and that's what i am doing now, which is curing diseases. (aaron) i mean, didn't it bother you at all? i've noticed throughout what you said that you've never felt like you've consciously made a choice. and you seem so comfortable with that too, with not having a plan. and that, for me, just boggles my mind because i feel like i really have to know what the next step is. you have to have a little bit of confidence that the right thing will come along, and you'll see it when it does. it might not be the same thing every time either. i've really changed my profession to something totally different, something that i actually hated. i mean, the idea of working on diseases... does that appeal to you? [laughter] i just knew that, yeah, you try to do something

that a lot of people need. so it's not that i have to pick a course for my life that's a very narrow thing, and i'd better get it right, right away... 'cause you can always back up and take a new fork. right now i'm involved in some really interesting stuff, and i figured out a way to deal with all the bacteria that is now escaping our antibiotics. like the staphylococcus aureus. if certain strains of that get you, you've got three days to live. (autumn) what are some of the things that you think you've done that you've really learned from? that i learned from? i think almost everything. i mean it sounds silly to say you profit from your mistakes, but you do. when you make a mistake it'll help you somewhere, probably. this thing that i've been working on for nine, ten years now-- and i've enjoyed it, and i've enjoyed watching it grow... watching it start to work. science has that almost wonderful quality about it

that sometimes it surprises the (...) out of you. i mean, i spent a long time before this one morning-- some lady from san antonio calls me up and says, "you're not going to believe this, but all our mice lived." you know, and it's like, um... it's cool when that happens and you say, "holy (...), i've been waiting for that for a long time." it can't be something that you do, where you say, "i've put in my 40 hours this week, "i'm going home and i'll think about this again in three days or whenever." it's gotta be one hundred percent. some people in the world don't have the luxury of even thinking about what they want to do for a living. do you consider it a luxury, kind of? to worry about it, i think, is kind of a luxury. (aaron) really? but don't get overenthusiastic about it, and think about it all the time. because a lot of times you aren't clever enough to figure it out the first time. if you are, you're on the wrong planet.

this is a learning experience here. this is like a bunch of bozos that haven't quite gotten out of the first grade. and so we don't know what we are or what we are doing. (autum) the first grad. (aaro) yeah, i like tha. you're still in the first grade. (kary) my particular approach to my life has been: i'm not anything. i'm me...you know? i'm the sum total of all the things i am interested in, and i'm interested in a lot. (liz) he was nice. (aaron) i didn't even want to ask questions, i just wanted him to talk. (autumn) so amazing, i'm not even kidding. you get this picture painted in your head of what a nobel prize winner is-- kind of how they'll act. and he said, "i'm not anything; i am me." i really liked that. (aaron) i just hate having to define myself in a certain category as a certain type of person. (liz) it still seems surreal, almost.

we're going to be doing something so mundane, driving, and then you're just going to be like, "holy cow...what am i doing right here, right now?" (liz) so i'm looking forward to that aha moment. (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. my name is jessie keplinger. i grew up here, in beautiful kodiak, alaska, but i'm joining two of my buddies to go on this awesome road trip. (jessie) i loved growing up in a small town and wouldn't change that for the world, but my views need to be expanded and my perspective on life has so much more room to grow. (female #4) leaving kodiak was a symbol of me going out and starting a life of my own. (jessie) so here we are on our way to our first interview. this is scott dickerson. he is an aerial photographer.

(scott) i don't know if you've seen anything about the paramotor that i've been doing. (scott) it's a paraglider wing and a fan on youback. the whole idea is i can fly and take photos. (scott) it is your life and nobody can tell you what is best to do with it. and you have your own sense or intuition for what's right for you, and if you want to have a lot of fun you've got to listen to that. (scott) a lot of people would say maybe i'm not successful, but i feel very successful. this is living the dream. the coolest thing about every interview was every single one of them loved their job. they weren't really working, but they were getting paid to live. that was what i was most impressed with, and inspired by. (liz) it's day four and we have a day's drive before we get to santa fe, which is where our next interview is. it really has just been a complete whirlwind.

(glenna) after all these years i'm still mashing the clay. success is the greatest revenge. the older you get, the more different you become as a person. (malco) embrace where you're at n your lif. you've got to have some blind faith, and you've got to go. and it will happen. (female announcer) to watch more interviews from the road and listen to the music that keeps us driving, visit www.roadtripnation.com. online you can learn more about the movement and how to bring the experience into your classroom. ♪ ♪

(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. 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.