The Placebo

Review by Jasmine Loucks

Finding the Open Road by Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard [ISBN: 1580087213]

As I can personally testify to, coming of age these days can sometimes feel like a struggle between your dreams and the shared dreams that your parents have for you. For the first 18 years of life (and on into college for many people) we’re stuck in a rigid system designed to send us on the “road to success,” but it can often feel like we’re not the one driving. In what can often feel like mere moments we’re off to college studying for a career picked for us by parents, teachers, or others, but not ourselves. This is where Finding the Open Road begins: three friends who felt like they were moving too fast to a life they weren’t sure if they really wanted.

Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard were seniors in college who felt like they had been taken out of the driver’s seat. To rediscover where they might be headed they decided to ask people of different professions how they got where they were. The friends planned a road-trip across the country to ask questions like “How do you find a career that you love?”, “How did successful people get where they are today?”, and “How can you shut out the noise of what other people want you to be?”. They took a summer off and set up interviews with people of all sorts of careers from CEOs to lobster fishermen. What they found would change their lives, and give birth to Roadtrip Nation, which would in turn begin to change the lives of many other young people.

Finding the Open Road is a book split into four basic parts. It contains the stories of people who made the journey on the road, the interviews they conducted with the people they met, an instructional section to help the reader conduct their own road-trip, and a section of inspirational wisdom to help people who might not have time to spend out on the road.

I found the stories of people’s experiences the most motivational. The book paints an awesome picture of the inspiration that different people found on the road. One picture of a young man standing waste deep in a river has a caption discussing a ritual that he and his fellow road-trippers created, a decision to jump into every major body of water that he and his fellow road-trippers passed on their journey. There are also stories of mini-road-trips that people have conducted, interviewing people in their local area.

After reading the inspirational beginning and the stories of the travelers of Roadtrip Nation the instructional part of the book is rather dry. It gives tips on how to cold-call people, how to plan your trip, and what you should be prepared for. Although it’s helpful information it’s in stark contrast with the openness of the rest of the book. After re-reading the story of the original roadtrippers and how they sought to break free of controlling influences, the instructional section feels like a step away from the DIY attitude of the rest of the book. Earlier in the book the authors explain that part of the book’s purpose is to provide the experiences of the roadtrip without the reader having to leave the home which also conflicts with this section.

After the instructional section, however, the interviews with people were very interesting. They range from the story of Kim Weaver, an astrophysicist at NASA to the story of Larry King. Some of the stories are rather incredible, really giving the sense that if you work hard enough, you can get anything done.

Finding the Open Road is a book that makes you want to get up and do something. After finishing it I had to fight urges not to hop on the next bus across the country and explore the possibilities that life presented me. The book is less about pursuing your dreams than it is breaking free of the dreams of others, which is often a crucial first step. It’s a great read for anyone who feels like they’re stuck on a road going somewhere they don’t want to be.

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Finding the Open Road can be found in The Placebo’s library
See also: Roadtrip Nation, official site

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