[female narrator #3] 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 #3] This is Roadtrip Nation.

[RV engine] [Roadtripper #2] We are getting gas in New Mexico.

We just turned around and saw the biggest spider I've seen in my entire life.

[Roadtripper #3] Yeah, but I mean by like, 300 percent.

[Megan] He's coming for you!

[Roadtripper #1] Do you want to touch it?

Come here.

[Megan] Do I want to touch it?

No.

Oh my god!

[Roadtripper #3] Wow!

Check this guy out!

Come on camera man!

Step up to the task!

Wow!

I've got to pet you.

[Megan] Oh my god.

[Roadtripper #3] Oh no, don't jump!

[Roadtripper #3] Don't hurt yourself!

[Megan] Just let him go.

[Megan] That was the first time I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm in the   desert."

[Roadtripper #3] That was amazing!

That was absolutely   amazing.

He's safe!

[Roadtripper #3] That wasn't a spider, that was a small animal!

♪ [Roadtripper #1] We are on our way to Dallas, Texas.

But we're first going to make a stop in El Paso, which is where I did my undergrad.

Four years ago, I first moved to the U.S. to start my college degree.

[Jackie] You see all those houses out there?

[Roadtripper #3] Yeah.

[Jackie] That's Mexico.

[Roadtripper #3] What?

[Jackie] (laughs) That part is Mexico.

[Roadtripper #3] We're that close?

[Jackie] Yeah.

[Roadtripper #3] Hola!

[Jackie] And this is the border.

[Roadtripper #3] Wow!

Is this the fence?

[Jackie] Yeah.

And up ahead, that's my school.

[Roadtripper #3] Oh, so you're really close!

[Jackie] Yeah!

(laughs) [Roadtripper #3] Huh!

[Jackie] We are close!

[Roadtripper #3] How far of a drive is it to your parents' house in Chihuahua?

[Jackie] Like 3 hours.

3 hours and a half.

[Jackie] I grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico.

I was born and raised here.

I was interested in chemistry since...

I guess 11-years-old.

I had my first chemistry and physics class.

After taking that class, my brother got sick.

He got really sick.

One day, since it was summer break and my parents were working, I stayed with him.

And I was just bored as...

I was really bored.

(laughs) So I went up to the IV bag and started reading.

"Sodium chloride one molar."

And I was like, "Wait a minute.

What?

That looks familiar."

And then I started following the little line, and it was going into my brother's arm.

I was just like, "Huh!

That is so cool!"

And that's the moment I decided.

In my head I was like, "I am going to be a chemist.

I am going to be a chemist who creates medicine."

[Jackie} I have been accepted to graduate school for a Ph.D. program that starts in August.

And I'm excited about it, but at the same time, I am very scared and nervous about whether this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I think in going on the Roadtrip, something that I want to gain is getting advice from all these different people that we are meeting and all the different backgrounds that they have.

I'm hoping to find what else is out there.

[Roadtripper #3] How do you say goodbye?

[Roadtripper #3] Oh, pfft.

Yeah.

[sizzling] [Megan] Life on the Road is very unique.

[Roadtripper #3] Made you guys tea.

[more sizzling] [Megan] We spend a lot of time on the RV, which is spacious and large.

But when you think about it, there are a lot of uses for everything.

Your bed is going to be the kitchen table in 3 minutes, where people have breakfast.

There's definitely a lot of respect for sharing every element of the space.

[Roadtripper #3] We are   so different.

Completely different backgrounds.

We are from completely different flows and functions of life.

But everybody likes to grow.

And that's what this trip has been about, is growth.

[Roadtrippers singing] "Deep in the heart of Texas..." [Zachariah] Morning, from Texas!

[Jackie] (laughs) ♪ [Zachariah] Yee Haw!

♪ [camera man #1] No freaking' way.

[Zachariah] Yes!

Um, hi!

I was calling about the U.F.O.

that you have for sale over here in front of the gas station?

I was calling about the alien spacecraft that you have in front of the gas station for sale.

This is awesome!

Oh!

Does it still fly?

[Megan] We are going to Texas Instruments to meet with Byron Williams, a product integration engineer.

[Zachariah] I'm Zachariah, nice to meet you.

[Megan] Hi, Megan.

[Byron] We use here, at T.I., semi-conductor materials to make chips that actually enable things like video, touch screen capabilities, in your computer, cell phone, and so forth.

[Zachariah] Wow.

[Byron] I knew that I wanted to do something in science, math.

Somewhere in that area.

And so I took classes when I was in high school that would lead me down that path.

I went to MIT undergrad and I don't think that I would ever change   any part of that.

It was a challenge, to say the least, to get a physics degree at MIT.

And I really...

I really started doubting whether I was going to be good enough to be successful at MIT.

Because I was being challenged.

But you know what?

If you're not challenged, you're not growing.

So I prioritized what needed to be done and what I wanted to do.

And I kept that prioritization really centered in my life.

Am I spending too much time over here being distracted with other things?

Or am I really applying my efforts and my energy to get to my goal?

[Jackie] I like his quote, "If you're not being challenged, you're not growing."

[Zachariah] Byron really pointed all that stuff out really well.

You have to put that mental power behind it, so that you can strive to make some type of progression.

Make something happen.

[Megan] For me the idea of talking to these people, these engineers, these inventors, these mathematicians, these doctors...

I think they're going to challenge me a lot.

I always got good grades and decent grades in math and science, but I never liked them.

I always had almost an anxiety about them.

I was the first person to tell you, "Oh, I'm not good at math."

The first person to whip out the calculator to calculate a tip on a bill in a restaurant.

For my certification for teaching in Pennsylvania, I had to take a math exam.

My nerves were wracked about this exam but I ended up doing really well.

So that's when I kind of started this little personal quest to find out, "Where did that come from?"

Because obviously it wasn't based in truth.

I'm capable of doing this stuff.

And I've read a lot about the fact that a lot of female elementary educators have that same anxiety about math and they instill it in their students.

And I wonder if a teacher that I had when I was in school myself convinced me that math was scary.

And I would be so upset if I were to do the same to a student.

I really want to nip this in the bud.

♪ [Megan] We are at the AT&T Foundry.

We're about to interview Tracy Parish, the senior marketing manager.

She used to be an elementary school teacher so she's kind of up my alley.

I'm really interested to talk to her about her experience in a classroom.

[Tracy] The big thing that we do, and a lot of what I do is I bring new technologies to AT&T.

And I do that by bringing the start-up companies, the 2, 4, 8 person type of company that has this great idea.

I give them a chance.

And how that helps a company like us is that we don't have to start from scratch.

We don't have to recreate the wheel if someone else is already doing it.

[Zachariah] When you were a kid, what were you like and how did it kind of lead up to where you are now?

[Tracy] My family did not want me to be a teacher.

Math was my ultimate favorite subject.

So my teachers, my parents, they were like, "You need to be an engineer.

You need to be an engineer."

So I came to Texas, went to a really strong engineering school.

And it was not the best experience.

And I said, "If this is what engineering is, I don't want to do it."

So at that time, without telling anyone, I went back to school that next semester and studied to be a teacher.

[Megan] What was the conversation like when you had to reveal to your family and friends that you had switched paths?

[Tracy] (laughs) Oh goodness!

I didn't tell anyone.

And   don't follow my example, but I didn't tell anyone until a year after.

And my mother was like, "You're never going to make any money!"

"Okay, I'll figure that part out later."

Yeah, I may be a broke teacher, but I'll be a happy teacher and I'll be doing so much good.

And it will be worth it.

So I have an education degree, and math as a minor.

I did teaching for six years.

And I still wanted to do that, just not in the education system.

So I became a corporate trainer, which is how I ended up with AT&T.

People wanted teachers that could teach the math or the sciences.

And I'm like, "Okay, That's the easy part.

Yeah, sure.

I'll do that."

[Megan] That's the hardest part, for me.

[Tracy] (laughs) [Megan] Math really frightens me, in a significant way, that I don't feel confident teaching it.

Because I don't feel like I, myself understand... not that I don't understand it, but I don't feel like I'm qualified in any way to talk about it, so... [Tracy] That's what's going to make you good, though.

Because as you're talking to your students, they'll know that you have those fears and that they can relate to you.

Like, "Wow.

"You have these fears, and I have these fears.

But you're a teacher teaching the math and science."

I wasn't scared to do that.

It just came so easily but I felt that there were times where there was a little disconnect because I couldn't understand how some of the kids   didn't get it.

So I think it'll be a breeze for you.

[Megan] She was the first and only person, to date, who has ever framed that math anxiety as a positive.

Because it would be something of a tool that I could use to relate to students.

If I acknowledge it and harness it in a positive way and use it to relate to the students who are struggling, I could be a role model for them.

And I could be a role model that says, "Math is hard and scary but it's worth it."

That was really exciting for me.

And I don't know if I ever would have considered it that way myself, had she not said something like that.

♪ [Zachariah] Texas lived up to Texas very well.

Oh, you know what's up!

I've been getting more in the flow of less "Well, this is what I think this place is going to be like."

And more like, "Here we go!"

And just getting on board for it.

And that's really cool.

You're a hog!

Ow!

(laughs) You guys have a good day.

You're plenty fat!

We're off to Houston!

Where it's supposedly even more hot and more humid.

But because we're amazing and that's how this trip goes, it's storming.

So it'll be nice and cool.

[thunder and rain] [Zachariah] I'm just eatin' it right now and right here.

Mm!

It's perfect!

Life doesn't get much better than this right here.

[rain] [Jackie] Why don't you grab this?

[Megan] Okay.

[laughter] ♪ [Jackie] So we get to Houston.

[Megan] There was a pretty intense rainstorm that lasted almost six or seven hours.

Torrential.

[Zachariah] Sure enough, we're on a perfect little tilt that night, to pull that water in.

Rain crept in off the corner, and nobody knew it.

And we slept in more, and more rain crept in.

We'd even been talking about how nice it sounds when it rains on the RV.

[Megan] I'm pretty sure I went back to sleep for half an hour before I woke up and was like, "There's a situation."

[Jackie] When we woke up, I put my feet down.

And the carpet was soaking wet.

[Megan] I woke up to Jackie with a towel.

And I didn't have my contacts in, so I couldn't really register what I was looking at.

[Zachariah] And then Jackie stood up and said, [Jackie] "Oh no!

We're flooded!"

[Zachariah] "Oh no!

It's soaked over here!"

[Megan] My feet were in puddles.

[rain falling on RV roof] [Zachariah] I went out and worked with that piece of rubber until I got it to flip outward.

[Jackie] So yeah, we spent a few hours [Zachariah] Not just a little bit of water that you mop up.

It was hundreds and hundreds of push the towel down, wring it out.

Push the towel down, wring it out.

[Jackie] Is it still pretty wet?

[Megan] Yeah.

[Jackie] (laughs) [Megan] So we ended up spending the afternoon trying to dry the carpet and just generally trying to recover.

It smelled a little weird.

[Jackie] It smelled pretty bad.

[Zachariah] It was a muggy swampland of an RV.

[water dripping] ♪ [Jackie] So we are in Houston, Texas.

We are interviewing Dorit Donoviel who is the chief deputy science and industry forum lead for the National Space Biomedical Institute Research.

[Dorit] So, this is pretty much the coolest job there is.

I'm telling you right now.

It is   the coolest job there is.

We think of space as sort of the ultimate extreme environment.

[Dorit] How do you administer health care in a tin can well above the earth?

You develop solutions that in the end, end up being so much better for Earth, too.

Because I may live some place in Alaska, in a little tiny town on a mountaintop with a thousand people, and there's no doctor.

That's like being in space!

All those technologies are going to make health care better for granny when she's in the middle of the Ozarks.

♪ [Zachariah] What were you like as a kid?

Just going back to the start.

[Dorit] (laughs) I was a nerd.

I was an immigrant.

I was born in Israel.

I was 11 when I came to the U.S. And I was kind of the awkward kid because I had an accent.

My parents had an accent.

I didn't dress right.

It was tough.

And I was the only person in my family that went to college.

None of my family went to college.

So for me, I sort of escaped into the learning, and the excitement, and feeling good about myself being smart.

And I actually know the moment where I knew I was going to go into biology.

I was in a class in high school and I had a project on cow hearts.

And so I had to go to the slaughterhouse.

This little teenage girl going to the slaughterhouse.

And they gave me a cow heart and I dissected it.

And I explained in class how the heart works.

And that was it.

That was the hook.

I thought, "Wow!

I gotta do this."

[Roadtrippers laugh] [Jackie] So what was the path that you followed after you knew you wanted to go into biology?

[Dorit] So I kind of followed a similar path to what you're doing, Jackie.

I went to grad school.

That was the path you took.

So I went into industry.

Lexcon Pharmaceuticals, I think that's how you found me.

So I worked there for eight years.

And I met a lady who works here and we started chatting.

I didn't even know about this place.

Three weeks after I met her, she emailed me and said, "We've got a position.

Are you interested?"

And that was it!

I was like, "I don't know."

Taking a step from something that your'e really comfortable with, and your'e good at, and you've been doing for a while, and going in a new direction is really scary.

And I'm a big chicken.

I admit it.

I was scared to do this.

But if I'm really honest with myself, I would say that I probably was starting to stagnate.

There's a sort of... You hit the roof, the ceiling.

And you don't feel like you can grow anymore.

It's - it's...

It's really scary, but I think you have to venture out into a new direction.

Because if you're going to continue in that place, you're going to become resentful.

And you're going to become really unhappy.

[Jackie] I feel like I'm taking the same path you're saying.

Like get your Bachelor's and the next step is grad school.

You need to take grad school and then go from there.

I don't feel very...

I want to do grad school, but I feel like a lot of it is because other people are telling me to do it.

Did you feel that way?

[Dorit] Yeah.

[Jackie] So how do you know when you should stop trying?

[Dorit] When you're not having fun.

You're not stuck.

See, that's the thing is most people would just grit their teeth and get through it.

And then you end up with a Ph.D. in chemistry and you're miserable because now you have to get a job in chemistry because everybody expects you to.

If you get in there and you do not like what you're doing, and you're not totally excited every day to come to work, stop.

It's okay to stop.

It's okay.

I mean, I have to tell you.

I honestly look forward to coming to work   every single day.

And maybe I'm fortunate.

But maybe... you know, Maybe it's just, if I wasn't happy, I would have walked away.

I don't know that I would have had the guts to when I was your age.

I probably wouldn't have.

But it's something I can tell you now because I'm old.

(laughs) But with chemistry, you don't have to go into research.

I mean, there's food sciences.

There's material sciences.

There's pharmaceuticals.

I mean there's... You could go into geology with chemistry.

Maybe space might be an option for you.

[Jackie] I am thinking about it.

[Dorit] Yeah!

So take every opportunity.

You never know what you're going to come across and what's going to divert your path.

So don't be siloed about your thinking.

Don't feel trapped.

Don't ever feel like you're trapped because you're not.

♪ [Jackie] Welcome to our home!

[Dorit] Nice!

[Megan] It might smell a little funky from the flood.

[laughter] [Jackie] Oh my gosh!

I can actually be somebody!

[Zachariah] Yeah!

Oh, you will be somebody!

[Megan] You are somebody!

[Zachariah] Yeah, you are somebody!

[Jackie] I'm doing this and I need to keep learning and keep studying and all of that.

[Zachariah] But what Jackie wants.

[Jackie] Yeah, what Jackie wants.

♪ [Zachariah] I like how all these interviews are blurring together.

[Megan] All these leaders that we've talked to, when they're in a situation and they can't make amy more positives out of it, they change it.

They radically change their lives.

They will quit jobs, change locations.

They will uproot everything that they have established to pursue something that will get them closer to their joy.

[Zachariah] If your'e not growing, if your'e not changing, then you're on your way out.

And I'm going to grow and grow and grow.

And I will never be stagnant.

The more I stir things up, the more I'm going to learn about things around me!

And that's been very powerful to me.

[Jackie] And I keep hearing other people telling us, "You guys are young!"

And we don't feel it.

We're just like, "Ah!

We're supposed to know what we want to do!

Now!

At this time!"

But it's okay.

It's okay that you don't know what you want to do or where life is going to take you.

[Zachariah] Check him out!

I feel so much better with him as my little co-pilot.

[Jackie] (laughs) [Megan] This weekend we are making the almost 1,000 mile drive.

[Jackie] Illinois state line!

Ready?

[vuvuzela] [man #1] So, you're going to be nervous.

But let it be that good kind of fear, like when you're riding a roller coaster and you're at the very top.

[Zachariah] Ahhh!

[man #2] You're not thinking, "Oh my god.

I'm going to die."

You're thinking, "Oh my god, I'm scared.

but this going to be awesome."

Same thing with the skydiving.

[Megan] Ahh!

[male narrator #2] 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 James, a Roadtripper from the Action Sports Roadtrip.

Hi, my name is James Karhu.

I'm 25 years old.

And I am a previous Roadtripper for the 2008 series.

It definitely was fun.

It definitely was amazing.

Some of the interviews that stand out to me are Santiago Aguerre, Rodney Mullen.

[James] It was so frustrating going around the career fair and being like, "Well do you have anything?

Anything I can get started in?"

They would hand me a paper.

And I would read the description and it would say, "Late night help desk consultant."

It was just like, "What am I even doing?

Did I even focus in anything?"

[Rodney] Just know this.

You gotta learn their ABCs.

They're not going to hoist you to the top no matter what, unless you prove yourself.

No one's just going to offer you some position at the top.

Learn the movements for the sake of the movements.

And enjoy those movements.

[James] You know, as far as after the Roadtrip, I was doing whatever it took.

I finally landed a job being a cast recruiter for MTV off of Craigslist, believe it or not.

And today, I have work at an amazing production company being a reality casting director.

I feel very, very fortunate and blessed to be here.

And I don't know that that would have necessarily happened and I really don't know what would have happened if I wasn't on Roadtrip, as far as aligning my interests and having the courage to say, "This is something that I'm interesed in.

I'm going to give it a go."

[female narrator #4] 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.

♪