The idea for this trip came together very organically, and has gone through many revisions: we started with the idea of moving to Nicaragua, then were intrigued by the possibility of hiking the Bibbulmum Track in Australia, then figured we should probably try to do a meditation retreat in Nepal….until finally we decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt all of it.
This article by Amanda Machado in The Atlantic was a big inspiration for us: it was encouraging to learn that a trip of this scale could be done on a budget (although hers still seems quite generous to us…), and its proclamations about the millennial generation planted the seed for our own project.
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This guy – Cory Richards – will blow your mind. His thirst for adventure and infectious optimism are hugely motivational, and his ability to build loving, empathetic relationships with people all across the world is inspiring. It reminds us of this quote from the great Maya Angelou, who died earlier this year: “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
Everybody: watch this NOW. The Runners is an incredibly interesting short film in which strangers are asked intimate questions while running. The answers the filmmakers get are really astonishingly personal, and have made us think about our own project more deeply.