[female narrator #1] 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.
Ever since the original Roadtrip in 2001, the keys to the Green RV have been passed down to a new generation of Roadtrippers.
[Roadtripper #2] Me and two total strangers [Roadtripper #3] Are going to travel across the nation, interviewing [Roadtripper #2] People who have made lives out of passions.
[Roadtripper #1] We're trying to find out who we are and what we want to do with our lives.
[female narrator #1] This is Roadtrip Nation.
[rustling] [Roadtripper #3] Mmm.
[buzzing and squeaking] [fRoadtripper #2] Still cool.
Every time.
Still cool.
[Roadtripper #3] Goodbye, dance floor!
[Roadtripper #2] (laughs) [Roadtripper #2] So it's the fourth day of the trip.
I would describe it as me and two total strangers got on a 36-foot RV to find ourselves.
(laughs) [Roadtripper #3] I could sit here and break down all the things that happened in the past few days, but really, ever since I've gotten here, it's just profound moment after profound moment.
[Roadtripper #1] So on Friday morning, we had our first interview.
I was pretty nervous.
It turned out to be pretty good, but I think I can get better at it.
I'd definitely like to go more deep.
I-I-I... need something else.
[Jackie] Zachariah, I need help!
[Zachariah] You're clear!
[Zachariah] I'm outside of my comfort zone.
When you're outside of your comfort zone, you have such an opportunity to... get the best pulled out of you.
[Megan] This whole trip-- being away from home, and living in an RV-- the whole thing is just outside of my normal.
[Megan] I'm making my bandana into a nose guard.
[Zachariah] Oh my god!
I want to rob a bank with you so bad!
[Zachariah] And... POOP!
Ughhh!
[Megan] Oh, it's backing up!
It's backing up!
Traveling on a big RV for six weeks will be huge for me discovering new things and thinking about new things.
Concurrently, I'm talking to all these people who will give me a different perspective on what we're all thinking about, you know?
The great big unknown.
[Jackie] So for these interviews, what I'm hoping to hear from the leaders is how to make sure that you are super passionate.
I was accepted into grad school.
I just graduated with my bachelor's.
But I still have this idea of like... Is this the right thing to do?
What else is out there?
[Jackie] We're heading up North to L.A. and we're interviewing Dr. Valerie Weiss.
[Zachariah] She got her Ph.D. in biology, but then jumped off to become a director.
[Jackie] Hi, I'm Jackie!
[Valerie] Hi, Jackie!
Nice to meet you!
[Megan] Hi, I'm Megan.
[Valerie] Hi, Megan.
[Megan] Nice to meet you!
Thanks for having us.
[Jackie] One of the reasons that I am taking this Roadtrip is because all my professors have told me, "You need to go to grad school, and after grad school, you stay a professor for the rest of your life."
So I'm trying to find out, what else can I do with my Ph.D.?
[Valerie] Got it.
Okay.
[Zachariah] Example A?
(laughs) [Valerie] Yeah, I have a lot of ideas of what you can do with your Ph.D.!
♪ [Valerie] I actually got interested in the arts before I got interested in science.
I remember when I was about 5 years old, I had this epiphany that life actually was finite, at a very young age.
And I remember thinking, "Wow, if life is so short, "I want the opportunity to do as many things as possible with the one life I have."
And I remember thinking, "Wow, well an actor gets to do that."
If you're an actor, you can have so many different careers than one.
I remember being really excited and telling my father, "I'm going to be an actress."
But then in 10th grade, I absolutely fell in love with biology.
And suddenly, between science and the arts, I felt like I could think about everything.
And with that, I decided to go to graduate school, and I did a Ph.D. in biophysics and biochemistry.
And I made my first film, "Dance by Design" while I was writing my dissertation.
And two weeks after we were at production, I had to defend my thesis.
[Roadtrippers laugh] Which was challenging, because I had been writing, but I wasn't as immersed in that world before making that film.
So anyway, I did.
[Jackie] How were you able to combine those two and focus on both of them?
[Valerie] So, like time management, and then just moral support?
Is that...?
[Jackie] And everything.
So point I'm going toward is... Once I graduated, the first thing that my research professor said was, "Congratulations on getting into grad school.
Just make sure to focus on your research.
Don't do anything else."
[Valerie] Mm-Hm.
[Jackie] Like, don't go-- [Valerie] And you're not the first person to ever hear that.
[Zachariah] No, no.
[Valerie] Because there was this feeling of being "in the closet" when you were in grad school, if you had other interests.
But I was unwilling to make a decision at that point because I didn't know what I wanted to do.
And then, you know, I was able to put these two interests head-to-head and really decided that if I never get to the finish line, if I'm poor, if I don't have a family as a result, if I give up everything else I want, what one thing is still going to be worth having done?
And for me, at the end of the day, it was being a director.
So that's when I decided to move to Hollywood.
Then I really got to work on writing "Losing Control," which is the film that we just released.
And the premise is, it's a quirky romantic comedy about a female scientist who wants proof that her boyfriend is the one.
[actress] "Nothing leading up to being married was the way that I planned.
How do I know that being married will be?"
♪ [Valerie] It's been great to be finally able to combine the two passions.
I think I approach my art as a scientist.
I have a hypothesis, which is, I want to make a movie about this.
Then I start collecting data.
Reading articles, or talking to people, but I get information.
And then I do some experiments.
Either writing a scene and listening to how it sounds with actors, or...
I mean, I'm using these terms kind of loosely.
My experiments are not super rigorous but the scientific method is still the same in how I work in creating something creative.
[Jackie] So you mentioned your Ph.D. because you were committed to it.
But then you decided, "Oh, I want to do film."
Do you think it would have been best right after undergraduate to continue to film school rather than in the sciences?
[Valerie] Right.
Oh, okay.
You, I can tell.
What's really driving you these days is "How do you know what you really want to do?"
Yeah, I can see that.
For me, the reason I did the Ph.D. was because I wanted to do this.
I wanted to do directing.
And I needed to know that when it was hard, that I wouldn't have regrets that I didn't just do science.
And if I still want to do film, after doing a full-on Ph.D., then I'd have to do film.
Because I'd know that my second choice wasn't enough for me.
♪ [Zachariah] She... just blew my socks off!
[Jackie and Megan laugh] [Zachariah] I'm just so inspired by her correlation between science and her passion.
They're not mutually exclusive!
That's such a powerful concept!
[Valerie] Okay.
"If they're anything like you, "I am estatic about the future generation.
XO, Valerie Weiss."
[Roadtrippers] Awww.
[Zachariah] Thank you!
[Valerie] You guys are incredible.
You're going to be everything you want to be.
It was nice to meet you guys.
[Megan] She manages to do it all.
And I think there are a lot of people that do that...
So why isn't the message out there that a lot of people can do a lot of things?
She does science by way of film.
[Jackie] She was able to keep both things.
The thing that I'm most scared of is will I be wasting my time doing the Ph.D. program?
And she was just like, "No, it won't be a waste of time."
♪ [Megan] After L.A., we took the most beautiful and terrifying road, I think, in the universe.
Highway 1.
Pacific Coast Highway.
And I drove, which was stupid.
[vehicles zoom by] [Megan] This is a crazy road.
Like what?
[Megan] It was terrifying.
My tongue is still all cut up from where I bit it.
(laughs) It really hurts.
[RV rumbling] [Megan] Oh... [Megan] I'm angling.
[Zachariah] That's fine.
[Jackie] They have more space than we do.
[Zachariah] There you go.
[Megan] They come around so fast.
[Zachariah] Megan is an incredible person.
She is a strong, strong, brilliant girl.
She just needs to know she can do anything!
She needs to stop saying things like, "I can't."
She's one of those "I cant-ers", a lot.
♪ [Zachariah] It's only smooth sailing from here on.
[Zachariah] You did it!
Good Job!
[high fives] [Megan] I do feel accomplished.
I would have never done that before.
♪ [Megan] Terra Firma!
[Megan] I'm so glad we're alive!
[Megan] I still can't really believe that that happened.
[sighs] [laughs] ♪ [Zachariah] San Fransisco!
A city that I've always wanted to go to.
Almost more than all these great, brilliant people that I get to connect with, I'm really excited to be in different cities.
And I'm just excited to go on a Roadtrip!
I've never seen the Golden Gate Bridge, beside on 'Full House.'
[Roadtrippers singing] Everywhere you look, everywhere-- there's a heart, there's a heart-- a la la la la la!
[Megan] Oh my gosh, it's like it's coming out of nowhere.
[Jackie] This is so crazy!
Ha ha!
[Zachariah] We can sum it up with one word: Uh, "fog."
You can feel it.
We didn't actually get to see the bridge because there was such thick fog.
But it's, you know, it's the little things that you learn when you actually get to the city and start experiencing stuff.
♪ [sound of waves] [singing, guitars, and trumpets] [Chinese instruments playing] ♪ [Megan] So when we got to the Bay Area, we went to Facebook headquarters.
We talked to Delfina Eberly.
She's the Director of Data Operations.
[Delfina] So the team that I operate in does the insulation of the servers.
[Megan] I'm not sure I know what a server is.
[Delfina] Think about a server as a really big... Maybe, laptop?
[Zachariah] So it's the big computer that runs Facebook?
[Delfina] There are many, many computers that run Facebook.
We get 500 million people who visit our site every day.
[Zachariah] Wow.
[Delfina] Right?
[Zachariah] Yeah.
♪ [Jackie] So what... was your path?
Coming here into Facebook?
[Delfina] How did I get here?
[Delfina] I ended up in technology by accident.
I come from a large Mexican family.
My parents immigrated here when they were young, and so I'm first generation.
My father was a farm laborer.
I wanted something different.
Like, I wanted something that wasn't...
I was searching for something to connect to and it wasn't there.
When I ran across technology completely by accident, it was like, "Oh!
Okay!"
I liked the rate of change.
I liked what was happening.
I'd never worked with computers.
Didn't have that kind of training.
But very early on, what was apparent to me, was that rather than shying away from the technology, I leaned into it.
I would just sit down and just figure it out.
Like, "I'm not sure how to do that, but I'm going to figure it out."
And that has really served me well.
That philosophy, even today, where, when I get a little voice that says, "I'm not sure how to do that."
That's when I try to lean in the most.
That's when I'm going to learn the most.
That's when something is going to change, instead of taking a step back.
[Megan] Was it difficult to go in a path that differed so much from your peers?
[Delfina] Um, it was in some cases lonely.
I'm not, I think, your traditional data center operations manager.
Most data center operations managers are male.
The organization that I run is about 130 people.
Most of them are men.
There are about five women on the team.
[Megan] What is that like for you?
[Delfina] You know what?
I don't really think about it.
Occasionally I'll sit in a room and I'll be like, "I'm the only woman here."
And that's okay.
And you know what?
Frankly, that's really freaking cool.
[Roadtrippers laugh] [Delfina] Right?
That I can hold my own with these guys?
But um... How do I articulate this to you?
When there's fear or trepidation it's in those moments where there are going to be those opportunities for growth.
Both personal growth, certainly professional growth.
I learned that really really early on.
And that has served me well.
It has opened doors for me.
It's also allowed me to expand the things that I'm willing to get into.
Do not wait for somebody to hand it to you.
Do not wait for somebody to come along and say, "Hey, this is the thing that you really want to do.
Like, go get it."
[Jackie] Last summer, when I did an internship, I realized that I was the only woman, Hispanic, in that group of 30 people.
When I started trying to book interviews, there were very few minority females who were into the sciences.
[Megan] How incredibly empowering is that?
That she is the only person that looks like her in that situation?
And she is in charge.
[Zachariah] Yeah.
[Megan] She is their boss.
[Jackie] Don't get down about it.
Don't feel like, "Oh, I'm the only woman.
I'll just shut up."
Like, "No!
Go out there and do something."
And if people are listening to you, you'll talk and talk and talk.
[Megan] I don't know.
That was just so cool.
And you can just tell that Jackie needed to hear everything that Delfina was saying.
[Jackie] Nobody is telling me, "No, Jackie.
You can't do it."
It's all me.
It's all me telling myself, "Oh, it's okay.
Somebody else can do it."
Or, "I'll try it later.
I'll try it later."
No!
Especially in those two interviews, it was like, "Wow.
I can do it.
I can go out there and create things."
[Zachariah] They're just getting it done!
And they're liking what they're doing, and they're following that drive.
And that is awesome!
It's really cool.
And there's really great snacks at social media-- [Megan] Are you eating beef jerky?
[Zachariah] I'm eating beef jerky right now.
[Jackie] (laughs) [Megan] I'd say it was a successful day.
[Megan] That's all, folks.
[Zachariah] Yep.
I think that's definitely, definitely all, folks.
[light switches off] [guitar music] [Megan] We are going to Mount Hermon Outdoor Science School to interview the director, Suzy Clark.
And to take a zipline tour of the redwood canopies which has Zachariah all amped to touch bark.
[Megan] (laughs) How I always feel.
I'm super nervous.
[Megan] Hi, Suzy?
Megan.
[Suzy] Megan, nice to meet you.
[Megan] Nice to meet you, finally.
Thanks so much.
[Suzy] You bet.
[Suzy] There's a platform.
For the zipline.
[Megan] Oh my gosh!
Getting those butterflies all over.
[Jackie] I'm getting more excited about this.
[woman yelling] [Suzy] Where are they?
Oh, there they go, right there!
[Zachariah] Oh, yes!
[yelling continues] [lRoadtrippers laugh] [Suzy] I grew up next to a river, all sorts of forests on either side of our house.
And I knew during high school that I wanted to study biology.
And I did try out the research field for a little while.
I then took a teaching job in a middle school.
After that, I took a curriculum writing and editing job.
Throughout those things, though, again, was that compliment of, "I'm just missing the outdoors."
And like, I want to be in it.
And then the job that I currently have, I just really love this!
(laughs) You know, I did some good jobs, but I did go into them not knowing "Okay, I'm going to love this and this is going to be what I do for the rest of my life."
Sometimes young people put that pressure on themselves.
And say, "I need to know exactly what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.
And I need to know it now."
[Megan] I never do that.
I don't know what you're talking about.
[Zachariah] That's why we're having this interview right now.
[laughter] [Suzy] So, I mean, I feel like you can lift the pressure that you put on yourself because just having experiences, those can really help you know who you are and what you want to be about.
♪ [woman #1] So you guys ready to have some fun?
[Jackie] Yes!
[woman #1] Fantastic.
[camera man] Megan, I didn't hear your response.
[Megan] Because I didn't say anything!
[Megan] It seems so scary.
You are 150 feet in the air.
These trees are moving and creaking.
And you're strapped to them by relatively thin wire.
[Jackie] See that line over there?
[Megan] Mm-Hm.
[Jackie] (laughs) [woman #1] There you go.
[Zachariah] Wee!
Oh my god!
(laughs) [Megan] Stepping off that first thing, I was actually trembling.
Oh, wow!
This is significantly scarier than ground school!
[woman #1] When you're ready, just kick your feet up.
Here you go!
[Megan] Oh my god!
Oh my god, oh my god!
Ahhh!
Oh my god!
Ahhh!
Wahh!
Whoo!
Oh shoot!
[woman #1] There you go.
[Megan] Wow, that was really high!
[woman #1] Did you look down?
[Megan] I did look down!
♪ [Megan] It's just stepping off the ledge that's the hardest.
[Jackie] Yeah.
[Megan] And then it's like, "Okay, this is fine."
You can apply that to a bunch of situations, that seem initially frightening.
Once you do them, you realize that you had no real reason to be afraid in the first place.
[Suzy] There are so many things that you can draw from the experience of ziplining: not being afraid, taking risks, it's almost like an elevation of the moment.
Life is this long journey.
and if you elevate the moment as just as important as all of life, then you can orient yourself towards, "Okay, this moment has a potential to be just about anything."
♪ [Suzy] The twenties, to me, is about having experiences so that you can know who you are, what you're made of, and what you want to be about.
If you truly embrace the struggle or the challenge or the change, or the suffering.
Whatever it may be.
Through that, surrender to it.
You then move through it.
Because you've allowed yourself to be changed by it.
[Jackie] Suzy said, "Allow yourself to be changed."
It's okay to change.
It's okay to change your interests.
It's okay to change your work.
And that's one of the things I'm still scared about: Changing.
[Megan] Each new experience is showing me that I like even more.
I don't think I've changed, as in 180.
I just feel like I'm adding all these concentric circles to my experiences.
[Megan] I just feel like I'm...widening.
That sounds like 'getting fat'.
But you know what I mean?
There's so much excitement for going forward.
♪ [Zachariah] A thousand miles driven!
[Megan] It feels a lot longer than that.
Every day is so full of activities and thoughts and people.
[man #1] I made a promise to myself.
Come hell or high water, I will get here.
[man #2] I hear a lot about the word "passion."
I think it's overused.
It's been devalued.
I think it's like a coin that's been rubbed too much.
But people don't appreciate as much the power of serendipity in their lives.
[female narrator #4] For more than 10 years, dozens of Roadtrippers have traveled in the Green RVs to define their own Roads in life.
Here's a quick update from Antoine, a Roadtripper from season 8.
My name is Antoine Sanchez.
I went on my Roadtrip on the summer of 2010.
The main reason why I wanted to hit the Road so much was I wanted change to happen.
Before the Roadtrip, I was definitely having those ideas that maybe school wasn't for me.
I actually didn't really know that I was going to go back to school until afer I went on my Roadtrip.
Elena Robinson.
She's a big influence.
She saw into my soul.
[Antoine] My parents, they've never played the card.
You absolutely need a degree.
All that freedom kind of backfired because I just...
I can't make decisions.
[Elena] You're not clairvoyant.
And don't feel bad because you make a bad decision.
Just keep going.
[Antoine] Most definitely.
[Elena] You do need a degree.
[laughter] [Elena] Let me look in your eyes.
You do need a degree.
[Elena] No limits!
[Antoine] I will email you with that degree!
[Antoine] I'm actually finishing my last semester in college.
I'm still looking to fax over a copy of my degree.
Things have changed since the trip.
I don't have the same kind of limitations that I had before.
Coming out of a hard experience, I honestly can't say I'd want it any other way.
"Stay true to your purest form and push to grow.
"Because living is life in motion.
So move."
I've evolved that sense of knowing that things are going to pretty much work themselves out if you just keep on going forward.
[female narrator #2] If you're living a life you love and want to share your story with the next generation, or if you're looking to define your own Road, head to Roadtripnation.com to join the movement.
♪
