(male 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.
Every summer, we bring together three people from different backgrounds.
Together, they explore the country, interviewing inspiring individuals from all walks of life.
They hit the road in search of wisdom and guidance, to find what it actually takes to build a life around doing what you love.
This is what they found.
This is Roadtrip Nation.
[gong echoes] (leader #3) You know, our minds can be so busy.
[gong echoes] (leader #3) There can be so many distractions, so many stories we're caught up in.
I think as human beings, we often get stuck in a place.
We can live a life without really truly being present to what's happening in our life, in the, in the moment.
♪ (Ed) Are there any key things that you've really learned from listening to other stories, to their sort of life paths?
(Roy) Absolutely.
It's a totally radical concept and maybe really difficult for people to understand, but to really practice dying when you're healthy.
So this idea of marking your thresholds--like for instance, you recently graduated high school.
That person, the high school student, is gone.
It's over.
We need to say good-bye to this prior stage so that we can really allow what's coming next to really emerge, you know?
This is who I was yesterday, that's gone.
This is who I am today.
So for instance, when you all walk out that front door today, you may never step in this house again.
And to really honor that threshold.
Like, something was experienced here today.
Really honor that and say good-bye to it, so that you can hold it as you leave this place-- it can be that insignificant, that small.
♪ (Ed) This summer trip is gonna be a hell of an expedition for me.
I come from rural England.
I've never been anywhere near the North American continent.
(Tele'jon) Um, I'm from Oakland.
Almost everything's gonna be new to me on this trip.
Today, we're about to head to L.A.
I've never been to L.A. before.
I see this as a new beginning, you know?
It's a threshold I'm marking.
♪ (Tele'jon) [on phone] Peace, Omar.
This is Tele'jon.
I was calling to just check in with you about tomorrow.
Um, we're actually like 20 minutes outside of L.A. Basically, dude, I'm like on an RV and we're like traveling the country right now.
The whole purpose of this is really to interview people who're doing something inspiring, seeing kind of where their life took 'em, ya know?
It's not really a conversation like, "So what do you do?"
but it's more like, "What are the life events that kind of led you to where you are, you know?
What kind of advice would you have for people who are just embarking on this journey of life?"
Things like that.
♪ (Omar) I'm originally from Stockton, CA, and Stockton is a very interesting place.
Forbes Magazine ranked Stockton as the most miserable city to live in in the United States of America, like three or four times in a row.
And for me, growing up, I experienced a lot of trauma--physical and psychological and emotional.
Physical violence existed in my home, so I internalized that, and then that only was exacerbated by the conditions that were going on around my community.
I engaged in a lot of self-destructive activities.
I uh, was constantly fighting.
I didn't have any-any mentors or no-nobody to guide me to say, "Hey, nah nah nah nah, you're going about it all wrong.
You know, you're only perpetuating this cycle."
The expectations were very much warehouse jobs, some dead-end nine-to-five, or locked up or dead.
What ended up happening my senior year, the vice principal greeted me at the door and she said, "What are you doing in my school?"
I'm like, "What?
Trip out, like, hold on, like, I'm here to go to school, you know?"
She's like, "Not in my school.
Go find a new school to go to."
You know, long story short, I wasn't given the-the critical nor analytical skills to be able to challenge her.
Now today, I'd be like, "Where my due process rights at?
Call my mother.
Right, like what are my options?
What school you gonna refer me to?"
I didn't have that-that language, I didn't have--I wasn't able to articulate that.
To me, it was like, "F it.
I'm gone."
I internalized those labels and I'm like, "Yeah, I am a screw-up."
That was it, like I was, effectively I was pushed out.
You know, you talk about drop-outs, I was pushed out.
I didn't know what my options were.
(Ed) How did you find out, what your options were?
(Omar) My brother.
I always looked up to my brother, my older brother.
Um, out of all our friends, he's the first one to graduate high school.
We were having dinner and it was two, uh, it was my brother and then two of our other close friends.
They were engaging in this conversation, a very intellectual conversation.
I couldn't even tell you what it was about today because at the time, I had no idea what they were talking about.
It was just like whoosh.
But it was intriguing, and I felt lost, I felt powerless because I couldn't engage in that conversation.
That was like the breaking point.
I have to go, I have to go back to school.
I have to go back to school.
I think I was like 23 when I, uh, went back to community college.
Found, you know, that first chicano studies book, took a chicano studies literature class, loved it.
It was like mind-blowing.
It was empowering, it was inspirational.
The cultura cura, right, is what we talk about.
Culture cures us, we heal through culture, we heal through our ancestor's knowledge.
And so I was like, "I just need to immerse myself.
I need to just be a part of as much as I possibly can."
And I knew that I needed more of it to continue to uplift my spirit, to continue to help me heal from the trauma that I experienced growing up.
(Tele'jon) So it's lookin' like ethnic studies, um, mentorship, was like the big things that kinda put you on the path that you're on now.
Right.
(Tele'jon) And like for me, like, my father just wasn't there, period, um and you know, I'm from Oakland, so those experiences as well--just like the father not in the household--it's like too common, right?
Yeah, Pops was never, never really there.
He spent a lot of his life in prison.
Um, I feel like there was times where he would say that he would come, and he didn't, so those was times where, like, it hurt.
Um, and then couple years later, he was, he was murdered.
Um, that was just one of those things that was like really just taken away from me.
Just, I'm 18, so it was just a couple years ago that I'm starting to understand why my father wasn't there.
I'm, you know, I'm indulging that information that's teaching me why my parents are the way they are and why, you know, the different decisions that they made.
Like, we see the importance that it had on your life, but can you talk about or articulate the importance that it has on everybodys, you know?
(Omar) Um, that's huge, brother.
I mean, thank you f-for asking that question.
You know, getting your roots, right?
We talk about our roots, and a tree is not strong without its roots.
A tree cannot stand up without its roots.
You know a lotta times, our fathers didn't have mentors neither, didn't have positive male role models neither, and that was very much the story with my dad.
And it's exacerbated when your peers, when the people who you look at as your brother, as your family, as the homies, also don't have those skills, and so then it's just a very self-destructive culture.
Question those things, right?
Try to ask critical questions.
"Why is it we do the things we do?
Why is that we live in the conditions that we live in?
How do we make these things better?"
Follow those instincts like in your stomach, right, like that say like, "Somethin' don't feel right about this," right?
Like, "Somethin' don't feel right about me carrying this gun, somethin' don't feel right about me carrying this little eight ball of crack in my pocket.
Somethin' don't feel right about me constantly looking over my shoulder."
Act on those feelings, right?
How do you go about doing that?
(Omar) One day at a time.
One day at a time.
Uh, it's just constant reflection.
I mean, knowledge is not static.
It's, and wisdom is not static.
There's still a lot that I need to learn.
You know, I know that I still have a lot of healing to do.
I still have a lot of healing to do.
I'm doin' it, right?
You're doin' it, y'all doin' it, right?
You guys are asking these very important questions.
We're not doing it enough.
I'ma keep looking for mentors and I'ma keep mentoring as many youth as I can.
Every student matters.
Every student matters.
I hope I answered all y'all's questions, you got what y'all were lookin' for.
(Tele'jon) I definitely got what I was lookin' for, man.
Man, that's what I'm lookin' for.
That's it for me, you know?
Why?
(Tele'jon) 'Cause he talked about all the issues that I'm passionate about.
The similarities between his story and my story, but then also my peers and like the people that I've grown up with, the people that I've seen go down super destructive paths.
What he's doin' now is something I can see myself doing in a couple years, too.
I'm excited.
I feel, I feel full.
(Ed) T's got the clearest set of ideals that I know for someone who's 18.
Like I-I didn't care about anything when I was 18.
I kind of cared about how I looked and that was pretty much it, whereas T's got kind of a much, much clearer set of ideals of how he wants to change the world.
♪ (Ed) So far, living in an RV's been pretty sweet.
Yeah!
(cameraman) Oh, dude!
Woah, two for two!
Aww.
(Ed) Like, it feels like a home.
(Olivia) Yeah.
(Tele'jon) Yeah, are those like shaving razors?
(Tele'jon) And you use that for your head?
(Olivia) Yeah, feels good.
(Tele'jon) It does?
(Olivia) It's like how you get that real tight shave.
(Tele'jon) I've never heard of anybody do that before.
Can we shave Ed?
(Ed) [laughing] No, we can't.
You're so quick at it, like-- (Olivia) I'm gonna show you a-a picture of back in the day.
(Tele'jon) Ah, no way!
(Olivia) Quick history: I graduated at 16 and entered right into tech school.
But also, my world got opened up and I started finding out I was attracted to women, and that just so did not go over well at all.
Um, it took me a couple years to, um, just get on like decent speaking terms with my family.
That formed a lot of those years and you know, it came with its share of turmoil.
Th-there's something to be said about feeling in line-- like body, mind, and spirit-- and man, I was so outta line.
I was so outta line.
Left on the marsh.
(Olivia) So part of what I wanted out of this experience was asking people about their experience trying to, like, stay in line with what they believe.
[acoustic guitar] (Olivia) Olivia.
(leader #5) Hi, nice to meet you.
Come on in.
I'm Ian.
I'm a stand-up comic.
And, a little background: I was born a girl, and I transitioned into this dude you see before you.
Um, about five years ago, I started a physical transformation.
But I really--it's weird.
Like, there's two things that I never connected with that I was like, "Ohh, you can do that?"
One was I could be a man.
That was, you know.
When I, when I, when I met somebody like me, I was like, "Oh my god!"
And I felt the same way about a career of making jokes.
I was like, "You can make money telling jokes?"
♪ (Olivia) Were you always the jokester?
Were you-- (Ian) No!
(Olivia) Like what role did you play?
(Ian) I mean, I definitely was an entertainer but there's people out there that knew like from the time they were early wanted to be a doctor, they wanted whatever.
But I just, I had no idea.
I went to college--I had no idea when I was in college, so I quit after a year.
Um, and I did a walkabout, kind of like I'm guessing like what you guys are doing.
What was the aim of that?
What did you want to get out of that when you were doing it?
Well, when I did it, I just thought, "I've never seen the country-- I've never been anywhere!"
Maine was pretty rural.
There was only one black guy in our high school in Maine.
I'm serious!
Like there was only one black guy.
It was so white.
It was like you and me.
It was you and me-- [roadtrippers laughing] In all of Maine, and I was, really-really, and so, um, so leaving and going and seeing something else made me realize that I'm not the only one that felt awkward, ever.
I'm not the only one that ever transitioned.
To learn that you're not a freak, you're not all of the words that you've heard over the years, you're not terminally unique--you're just kind of like everybody else.
But eventually, I felt like I gotta do something, I gotta settle down.
And the interweb started happening.
And so this is like 1996.
I started my own company called Portland Websmith.
I got a postcard in the mail from a guy, who offers comedy writing classes.
So I started doing comedy, and as that started to progress, I didn't leave my web business in the dust.
I knew that I had to keep doing it in order to make a living, but comedy was like my new fix.
I started driving two hours each way to a show, uh, to do five minutes for free.
That kind of like, that kind of obsession.
You know, like, "I gotta get that stage time."
(Olivia) How did you do on your first five minutes?
(Ian) Um I did all right.
I did all right.
I can tell you what my very first joke was, though.
(Tele'jon) Yeah.
[laughing] (Ian) Let me see if I can remember the wording of it.
Okay, so um, I'm queer, and I'm a web developer.
And uh, as you can imagine, it took my parents a little while to accept my being a web developer.
[roadtrippers laughing] (Ian) That was my opener, that was my opener, so.
[Ian laughing] (Olivia) No, I like it because like being queer, I kinda relate.
Were they, um, accepting from the start?
What was their response?
(Ian) So, 19 when I came out and told them I like girls-- I did that when I was drunk.
That was good times.
Um, and then, again later.
But I actually wrote them a letter.
I wrote them a very long letter when I was like 30.
And uh, I always chuckle when I say this, but I gave it to them on Easter.
Um, you know, "Jesus is risen, I'm trans."
Um, just seemed like it went together.
And uh-- (Olivia) So sexuality, it sounds from your very first joke, you've always incorporated it in your stage presence.
(Ian) Yeah, it wasn't just about making people laugh, it wasn't about just sharing my story, but it really was about changing people in this way through laughter and not wagging your finger at people.
To be on stage and not acknowledge who I was-- visually, how people already seeing me, I knew that they were looking at me going [mumbles].
You know what I'm talking about.
I'm gonna guess that people look at you-- I'm just saying from my own experience-- (Olivia) I get "sir" all the time.
Yeah!
That actually was like my opener because I wanted to get it out of the way, in order to get them on my side.
(Olivia) I never hear, um people talk so confidently about it.
How do you, um, retain your individuality?
(Ian) Well, how I also apply that in my routine, but as a message, um, to the world, is that who you are is not up for public debate.
Your identity is not up for debate.
Yeah.
(Ian) If you were sharing your story with somebody, it's inarguable--it's your story.
Whatever I do--even when I was selling websites-- I would go into a meeting and just be myself.
And that usually is what sold the website, not the website.
You know what I mean?
Like-- So me going on stage and being myself, like, be you.
When I first met Margaret, she gave me this bracelet that said, "'Come to the edge, he said.
'But we're afraid,' they said.
'Come to the edge,' he said.
'But we're afraid,' they said.
They came to the edge, he pushed them, and they flew."
And I thought, I was like, "That's so awesome!"
I just, I was like, "I love that so much!"
I think what it is now, is that I realize there's really nothing to be afraid of.
I honestly believe that if you want something and you just jump, like, the wind will catch you.
Like, it will.
(Olivia) It was big for me, like once I came out to my parents, it was like, "Wow, I can do anything, There is no--" Unstoppable.
Yeah, unstoppable.
And that's when I flew, I think, when I really-- (Ian) Do you guys feel like you're-- with this project or before this-- were you flying, are you flying now?
Are you gonna fly?
[laughs] (Ed) Gonna fly.
Gonna fly-- 'Cause this is-- Yet to jump.
(Ian) You're here, you're doing this thing.
(Ed) Yeah, well, yeah.
Yeah, okay, that's quite a big jump for me, 'cause until now, working small jobs--working like in a call center and stuff--I hadn't jumped at all.
I don't know if it's a similar thing for you.
(Tele'jon) I feel like I've done some jumping, um.
I feel like I haven't flew yet, but-- like I have some experience on stage.
I'm a spoken word artist, and so I've done that, and I remember like when I was like getting, getting into it, I don't know, maybe I just like went to the edge.
(Ian) No, you jumped.
Yeah, that's jumping.
I think I mean, like, I think that--and it's not just one time.
It's, when I say jump, I've jumped many times.
It's not like I jumped once and I've been flying since.
Like I've landed and then I've jumped again, and I've landed and I've jumped again, and I've landed and, So it takes time to like figure out who you are and to be that person wherever you go.
But you have to jump, you have to.
(Ed) Ian Harvie, being so open with his sexuality, it's like this is kind of brilliant, like, thanks.
Thank you so much for for doing that, just opening my eyes a little bit.
Man, I like how open he was.
How did you find what he said about coming out?
(Olivia) Oh, it makes me wanna cry.
Yeah, it's a weird thing to talk about.
I haven't I don't share with too many people, but I have I relate the feelings of feeling trans.
Sometimes I feel like a boy.
Okay.
Like I've had those, you know, those teary times and all those debates in my head about "What does it mean?"
and "I'm screwed up" and all this stuff, so it totally hit that soft spot.
It's one thing, like, you know the first time I came out, I wasn't able to talk to my family for a couple years.
(Ed) Yeah.
(Olivia) And that was hard.
I get this impression that, like, that's what's gonna happen again.
But how do you tell your parents you have a son Like it's strange.
(Ed) Yeah, it's really tough.
Hey.
(Olivia) Thanks, Ed.
(Ed) Aw, don't worry, you'll be fine.
(Olivia) Right?
(Ed) Yeah.
Yeah.
(Olivia) Yeah, that was motivating.
He had a lot of clarity on simply living life to what was honest to him.
Yeah, an honest life.
I just want an honest life.
It's encouraging to see other people do it because it makes me confident in going after my own life.
(Tele'jon) I'm glad you booked that interview.
(Olivia) Yeah, thank you, guys.
It's a success story.
Exactly.
Dude, he's attractive.
[Olivia laughing] He's a good-looking dude (Olivia) [indiscernible] a little bit gay right now.
♪ (Olivia) You can't really deny anything but being shaken through this experience.
Like, at this point, I can't avoid it if I wanted to.
(Ed) The next six weeks, I wanna be open to new ideas.
I've realized already quite a lot of it's gonna be me learning from T and Olivia.
They've a lot to them I think it's really gonna be living with these guys that I'll remember most.
(Tele'jon) Yesterday, we were just thinking about, "What are we gonna do for Olivia since her birthday is today?"
(Ed) It was a bit ambitious, but we wanted to fill the RV with balloons.
We've gotta inflate about a hundred balloons.
(Tele'jon) Olivia was on her way a lot earlier than we were expecting her to be.
I was like blowing up a balloon and writing on her card, just kind of like trying to multitask.
♪ (Ed) Ahh!
Happy birthday!
(Olivia) You guys are amazing.
You guys were hilarious.
This is the cutest thing ever.
I loved it.
This is amazing!
Wow!
I love it.
[balloon pops] (Ed) Oh!
[laughs] (Tele'jon) We're a week and a day, I think?
It feels like it's been a month already.
(leader #6) I didn't wanna replay the actions that my father had gone through.
I wanted to really do something.
(Olivia) All right, let's power down a river!
Like, I'm super charged.
(leader #7) A lot of my philosophies in life are around water.
You have to go with the flow, but you have to have, you have to act at the right time.
(Ed) I never imagined that kind of 4th of July kind of experience for myself.
(female narrator #5) Roadtrip Nation extends beyond the program you just watched.
It's a movement that empowers individuals to define their own roads in life.
Here's a quick snapshot of the Roadtrip Nation experience at Clinton Global Initiative America.
(student #1) Tomorrow, we're going to the Clinton Global Initiative, and we're gonna be meeting other leaders-- (student #2) That are important in our society-- (student #1) And asking them how was their story.
I feel really excited, and I-I'm a little nervous.
(student #3) So my first question to you is, "How did you get to where you are today?"
(student #2) Were there any issues throughout your life that might have hindered you?
(leader #8) I think fear sometimes is the biggest thing that-that hinders me.
(leader #9) That fear is probably something that will stop you when you shouldn't stop.
Un poco atrevida, verdad, You know?
I mean, get out there an-an-and push back a little bit.
(leader #10) You're gonna stumble, we all stumble.
How do you get yourself up?
How do you dust yourself off?
(student #1) Speaking to all of the leaders, they're not so different to how we are.
(leader #11) What this type of journey does to you is makes you realize who you are.
You discover yourself better when you put yourself into this kind of difficult journey, hopefully better than ever before.
(student #3) They're succeeding in life, and they're doing everything that they can and they're accomplishing goals.
(student #1) Makes me feel like I could actually do the same.
(student #2) Now, I definitely feel more confident about my future.
(girl #1) No matter what you do.
(boy #1) Or where you come from.
(boy #2) You've got wisdom to pass down.
(male narrator #1) Help young people find their way by sharing the lessons you've learned.
Take fifteen minutes to tell us what you love to do (boy #1) The door's open (boy #2) We're all ears (girl #1) Become a leader at ShareYourRoad.com ♪
