(male #1) we are traveling the united states this summer, getting advice from people we feel are really influential. (female #1) it's still scary... thinking of making that leap, but i feel more ready to do it now. (female #2) i kind of think i have it all figured out, so when i learn something new that's a big deal for me. (male #1) i'm so excited to feel so confident about making such a huge change. (nathan) i've found that if you step out, there's always something to catch you. (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. (female 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 kinds of interesting people to learn how they found their way. this is roadtrip nation. ♪ (male #1) there's a lot f emotions going on right no.

i feel surprised that it's over in a few days. (female #2) right now i'm okay, but i know i'm going to be sad in a few days when we all leave each other, so...yep. (autumn) we are in new york, ny! gosh, we could do anything our little hearts desired. (female #1) central park! (autumn) and ground zero. (female #1) time square. (male #1) lots of things. (female #1) i love the variety of people in this city. i love people watching; it's one of my favorite things to do: just sit and watch people, and this is probably the best place to do it. ♪ (male #1) growing up in missoula, and living in stevensville... they're such small towns, and you have this huge image in your head of what this big city's going to be like, and of all these rude people storming by,

and so much going on... and it really was a lot going on. ♪ (aaron) so we are actually on our way to meet with zee avi. she is a pretty famous singer-songwriter, and she was discovered on youtube. (autumn) hello. (aaron) hi, zee. hi, i'm autumn. nice to meet you. ♪ (liz) oh, wow. (aaron) so we'e all 2. could you give ud, and how you've gotten to where you're at right now? well, interesting story 'cause at this age... i'm 24 as well this year. i've been through what you guys have been through, and i left high school when i was 16, and then waited three months to get into a-levels. a-levels is kind of like college for us,

and there's not many choices, you know? at that age i'm like, "okay, i'll just be "whatever my parents have always wanted me to be: i'll be a lawyer." so i took english literature, government and politics, and law. but at that age...still trying to find yourself, and everything like that... i'm telling you, i had the pink highlights, and all-black, and black nails, and was listening to a lot of heavy metal music. [jokingly] it was a really dark time in my life. [laughter] and you know, at that point in time i started writing; writing poetry... and then i saw my guitar just looking at me, and i was looking at him. and then...so i picked it up and i wrote my first song. and my friend, he's an indie dj, and he said, "there's this band called the deserters, and i was wondering if you'd like to open for them." and then i performed three songs, but one of my friends couldn't make it, and i really value his opinion.

so i said, "ah, dude, i'm really bummed you didn't get to make it to my gig!" he said, "send me an mp3 recording of it." i said, "i don't know how to do that stuff. "but i do have a webcam and my dad's old ibm laptop. "i can just post you this video of the song. it's going to be pretty bad quality." ♪ ♪ no there won't be christmas for me this year ♪ and so i checked the next day... i had 30 views; i was ecstatic. and, like, three new comments... "wow!" you know? and that motivated me to post more and more and more. youtube handpicks videos to be featured on the front page, and that's what happened. i remember it was on my birthday when it got featured.

i came back home after my birthday dinner and there was 3,000 new emails in my inbox, you know? i said, "what is going on here?" and all of them were from youtube one email came through and it read, "we manage the white stripes, the shins, m.i.a.," and, you know, all these crazy artists that i'm a huge fan of. and i went: [gasps] [laughter] and, you know, "we would like to exchange contact info, and we're interested in flying you out to l.a." and so i did, about a month later. and...yeah, i think this was last year. beginning of 2008. that's crazy. yeah, it is pretty crazy. do you think you would have continued posting if you hadn't gotten such positive feedback? that's really interesting. "no christmas for me" was intended to be

the last video...the one that got featured. i was like, maybe i should take a break from this and concentrate on real life, you know? and then it just so happens that someone somewhere in the universe said, "no, this is what you're meant to do." for me, writing was a way to vent out. you know, it's my outlet to express everything, and it just felt so natural. you know, you just know. now that you're doing what you love to do, do you ever have the fear that it's all going to come crumbling down? of course. how do you deal with that? just take it as it is. one of the best advice that was given to me was by the vp of universal southeast asia, and he said, "you know, right now you're done with queuing up, and now you're all buckled in and, like, hanging on to your seat.

someone's going to push the button and you're going to go on one huge roller-coaster ride. and that's what this is. like anything else in life, it's a huge roller-coaster ride. there'll be high times, low times, happy times, sad times, and you just have to hang on. guys, thank you so much for doing what you do. we all need this, and of course, rock on. (liz) [laughter] thank you so much. (liz) if i'm asked, "what was it about this trip that made me feel inspired to go out and do what i want?" i would tell them it's sitting down and talking wit all these people who were at the same spot i was and actually went for it. (liz) you know, why can't i be like them? you know, why can't i follow what i love? (liz) it's kinda crazy thinking about how far we went in six weeks. it's funny to just visualize the little memories:

energy rock, and glenna's place, and all the turquoise. (aaron) [laughter] and the streets. (aaron) it got so much cooler after austin. new orleans was pretty hot too, but-- (liz) it got humid in new orleans. (aaron) it was better than austin. (autumn) the weirdest thing is to think of being up there as compared to down here, because not only is it across the country, but it's super far south... (autumn) super far north... (autumn) so we're on our way to our last interview, with nathan vincent. it's kind of sad. (autumn) you know, it's all coming an end and it just feels kind of surreal how it's our final one. (liz) ah! we're late. (autumn) for a very important date. should we just ask somebody? (autumn) yes. aaron, tap him! i'm not going to tap him! a little creepy tap. (aaron) no! [laughs] hi, excuse me. do you know which way payson street is?

sorry, i don't. okay, thank you. (aaron) excuse me, could you tell us how to get to payson street? huh? payson street? do you know where that is? [unsure] uh... i was wondering if you knew which way payson street was? i don't know. excuse me. do you know where...oh. excuse me, do you know...oh. [laughter] (liz) she's in a rush. (autumn) excuse me, do you know where payson street is? (male #2) i think it's that way. that way? cool, thanks. ♪ [knocking on door] [lots of locks unlocking] [laughter] sorry about that. (aaron) no worries, you must be nathan.

(nathan) yeah, yeah. nice to meet you. (nathan) come on in. (aaron) nathan vincent felt that these, like, societal titles... ...there was too much weight on them. so he started crocheting all these masculine objects, like tools and lawnmowers and deer heads and bear rugs... in a feminine way, which was crocheting. (nathan) so how did you guys find me? (aaron) my mom...and i actually watch martha stewart too... ...my mom saw you on martha stewart, and she told me about you, and then i watched the clip. (aaron) i just thought it was so interesting. ♪ (nathan) i grew up in michigan and oklahoma. i was a very shy, very inward kind of person. i went to school for art because i didn't know what else to go for. [laughs] because i hated math, i wasn't any good at science... i was home-schooled through high school,

so i didn't have a guidance counselor or anything, so i didn't know what to do. so i went to art school in california...college. and then my third year of college i came out to new york. (aaron) were there any fears for you, moving from the midwest to california? well, midwest to california wasn't a huge deal because i kind of had my parents' blessing. when i decided to move from my christian school in california to my very liberal school in new york, i had no support from my parents. i had no support from family. everyone looked at me kind of like i was crazy. like, "how the heck can you go to new york city and think that you're going to make it?" so i had very little support. but i really felt like i was at home for the first time since leaving home when i came to new york. because i really felt like this is the place that's going to accept me for who i am, and accept what i want to say, and embrace that.

wow, so where specifically with crocheting? like, where did that enter? so i was in college for five and a half years, i started out as graphic design, then i went to drawing and painting. and, you know, i could paint, i could draw, but not really great at either thing. and i also felt like i didn't really have anything to say with drawing or painting. and so i was talking to my college mentor, who was my teacher as well, and i was like, "you know, i don't really know what to do." a few days later he walked into my studio and i'd just been embroidering on a painting and he's like, "what's that?" and so we started to talk about it and i started realizing that ideas of masculinity and femininity were very important to me. and, like, the questions behind them were really interesting. like, why, specifically, men get to do certain things and women get to do other things. and why does it seem strange when a guy is crocheting,

or a woman's out in the garage working on her car? because growing up as a kid in a pastor's home in the midwest, i played the piano, i drew, i did crafts... ...all the things you're not supposed to do as a little boy, so i had a lot to say. i felt like i'd really been repressed or something, and i wanted to get out there and say, "hey, it's okay! you can do these things, and why not?" so i started questioning that with my artwork. (liz) so how did you deal without having your family's support, coming to new york? because for all of us, what's kind of holding us all back is leaving that, our families, and going places where we don't know people. how did you deal with that? um, i have a very extreme situation now where i don't really even speak to my family. um...it's been a ride for sure.

i wouldn't recommend it to everyone. [laughs] but mine had a lot to do with me deciding a different-- my family's very religious and it had a lot to do with me deciding that i didn't want to live a really super-religious life, and that-- i mean, i came out to them, and that was a big issue. my dad's a pastor and... [laughs] is very against everything that i am, so... and it's his profession to be that way, so it's a little more difficult there. and some of it was my own stubbornness, saying: "if you can't accept me for who i am and what i want to do with my life, then don't talk to me. and they didn't. so there's a little bit of stubbornness on both of our parts, so i'm not going to say it's all their fault. um, but it was really hard, but fortunately i had people

in my life, very close friends, who were saying, "it's okay, you're going to live," and i think i just had to realize that my family wasn't living my life. i'm the one who's living my life. i'm the one who has to make things happen for myself, and screw what everyone else thinks, you know? if they're going to be upset about it, then they're going to be upset about it. but you learn to build your own support system if the support system you grew up with doesn't continue. a friend of mine said - this is a really interesting visual too - a friend of mine said that life is like a tuning fork, and when you hit it, what you're looking for goes out there into the world, and all the other forks that are tuned to what you are start vibrating, you know? and so all of them start to coalesce and come together, and you just find the same frequency, basically. and i really think....i look at my friends and a lot of them say they can't do things because their parents

wouldn't agree with that, or they're afraid of what their family would think. and i guess maybe just because i've gotten through it, i think it's not as important as we make it out to be. i've found that if you step out, you'll hit rock, you know? you'll be able to keep walking. there's always something to catch you, and if not... if you do fall flat on your face, like you're worried about, you just get up and go again, you know? (liz) when you find people who are on the same frequency as you, that little tuning fork he's talking about, (liz) it's an amazing feeling to be around people who accept you for who you are, on your good days, your bad days... it's kind of a magical thing to find. (liz) i think a lot of people, even at home... telling them that i'm going on this trip with two of my best friends, they're like, "wow, you sure you want to do that with your friends? you may not be friends after this."

i think it really was a test of our friendship, and i think we passed with flying colors. ♪ ♪ (autumn) i think it's funny how, with the beginning of the trip, i was really hesitant to go. and it's funny to think that if i was at home right now i'd probably be like, "yeah, i'm so much more comfortable than i would have been if i would have done it." think about all we would have missed out on. (aaron) don't you think that's sad to think about? liz would be at the coffee shop and i'd be at a computer. (liz) yeah, i've thought about the coffee shop.

(aaron) could you imagine? (aaron) you'd be cutting that piece of quiche right now. [laughter] (liz) the thought of just being at home and not... (aaron) and not seeing all that we saw, and speaking to all the people we talked to, and not having any idea. (aaron) i think the bigger thing overall for me is i constantly have this moment that's like, "we're in new orleans, and we're talking to a voodoo priestess," and, "whoa, we're in atlanta and we're at the cnn headquarters," and, "whoa, we're talking to the lady that performed the first face transplant," you know? it's just a lot of those, like... mind can't comprehend how amazing the moment is. (autumn) the fact that it's all ending... it'll be weird because i love this rv; i think it's stressful, but i liked it.

(autumn) [singing] pajama pants keep me strong. [singing] when i am weak, they make me belong. [amused] oh my god. [singing] yeah, yeah, yeah... (aaron) [imitating autumn] yeah, yeah, yeah... (aaron) it's surprising! it's sad, and it's come up so quickly. in the mix of all of that, i also think it's kind of citing too, because we'll get a real bed and a real shower, and we'll get all the opportunity to jump and go someplace new and different. (female #3) you learn from every experience. what you're doing right now is learning more about people, all the time. [laughs] i wish i'd have done that. (male #3) you've heard my story, right? i've been there and i've been through all those stages, and i wouldn't have the story to share if it wasn't for

all that difficulty, and you won't either. but that's the character that's being built; that's the story that's being created. (aaron) " the framework of my experiene that might help you: "everyone is aware of their passion. "it's what we do every day for free. "once it's clear to you, be selfish, be brave, jump. once you've made your leap, and you know you've arrived, use your talents to help and inspire others." (autumn) before i went on this trip, i didn't really think i had much to gain from it, and then i realized how much i did, and how much it was kind of an egotistical thing to think that you don't have anything to gain from getting out. "the only person who can stand in your way is you. "so have the old you step aside as the new you steps forward. "then you'll find the things you didn't even realize "you were missing. happy, i.e. pajama pants.".you (liz) " you have but this one life.

"there is no rehearsal, so live it up. "don't let the fear of the unknown hold you back. "always remember that happiness "is the key to a truly fulfilled life. "on your deathbed, you won't look back on the money you made, "but the manner in which you lived your life. so no regrets and get the most out of it." ♪ (aaron) before we left, the three of us were talking about the trip, and what would be the ultimate feeling at the very end of the trip. we decided that it would be the feeling of taking on the world. like, that you feel like you could do absolutely anything. (aaron) i mean, don't get me wrong; like, i'm not going to paint this picture that i'm like a completely new person now. but, as corny as it sounds, i pretty much do feel that way.

♪ [laughter] (autumn) post-trip thoughts! (liz) it's been a year exactly! ...almost exactly a year since we went out on the roadtrip. well, it's been an interesting year. (liz) autumn and i have almost full-time moved in with aaron. (aaron) we got conditioned to live together when we lived in the rv. so we came back, we're like, "this is spacious!" [laughter] (aaron) i applied for law school here in missoula, and i didn't get considered, so i was horribly disappointed. and autumn and liz suggested possibly just seeing about how to get into the master's program for political science. so using roadtrip nation skills of finding the right people to get ahold of, i can get provisionally accepted into the

grad school at the end of this semester...this fall semester. my plans right now are to go back to school, study religion and history, and then get a ph.d. eventually, and teach at a university. my mom is great; she's still a lot different than me, but when i decided i wanted to go back to school, she was the one who was looking into all the different schools and seeing if they had a religious studies program. after the roadtrip i decided to continue and get a master's degree here at the university of montana. there's some really good professors, and i was talking with one two weeks ago and she said she'd really enjoy having me work with her on some taphonomic studies, which are the processes that happen to a body after death. (autumn) hmm...creepy. [laughter] [jokingly] that's normal... (liz) most people...they tell us we're weird, and i think it's just because they haven't found

people that they can truly be comfortable with, and that's kind of sad, and i feel... i just feel really lucky to have found friends like that. (autumn) aww! [jokingly] get out of here! [laughter] (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. (female 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.

venice seems to be everyith more italy connoisseur's...of europe. prague has always been beautiful... germany... the irish civilization... the eiffel tower was built... hope you've enjoyed the magic of... stonehenge is roped off and viewable only from a distance,

but england is dotted with less famous but more accessible stone circles. my favorite... avebury. the avebury stone circle, just 40 miles away, is as old as stonehenge and 16 times as big. and best of all, this megalithic playground welcomes kids, sheep, and anyone interested in a more hands-on experience.