What are you going to do with your life? It’s a question we have all been asked many times, but do any of us really know the answer? No matter what response we give it seems like people are never completely satisfied and that somehow our vision of how our lives should unfold doesn’t live up to others’ expectations.

As students, it can seem like we are supposed to have our lives mapped out. Pressure from peers, parents and even perfect strangers can make it feel like we are supposed to have a clear and definite plan that will lead us from degree to career. But sometimes when we go to make the shift from studying to working, we realize the path we are following is no longer the one we want to be on.

This is what happened in 2001 to four recently graduated friends from California. Instead of continuing unhappily on the paths they had chosen, Nathan Gebhard, Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister and Amanda Gall set off on a cross-country road trip.

While travelling across the U.S. they interviewed influential leaders who had followed their passions in order to see how those people had made their dreams a reality. The road trippers quickly realized that they should share with others what they learned and the stories they heard, which gave birth to the Roadtrip Nation project.

The group produced a book, Roadtrip Nation, and a documentary, The Open Road, from their original footage.

Gall quickly moved on to become a teacher while Gebhard, Marriner and McAllister took on Roadtrip Nation full time.

Roadtrip Nation is a program that helps students, including some at the University of Saskatchewan, forge their own paths. In 2008, the program developed a curriculum to help students everywhere create their own awareness-inducing roadtrips.

The Roadtrip Nation Learning Community at the U of S was established in the winter term of 2011. The community meets weekly to explore the program’s curriculum and to plan their own mid-term break road trip.

In early February, Roadtrip Nation’s partnership director Jimi Spatharos spoke to students about his experiences with the program and the experiences of others who had participated in it.

One of the things Spatharos mentioned that I found most interesting was the sheer number of jobs he has worked. He estimated that he has had around 20 jobs, and the variety among them was just as surprising. From engineer to fisherman, it seemed that he has worked in every field imaginable.

More than anything, this showed me that our paths are always changing and that all experiences are valuable and will matter one day. It also proved that what you want to do one day might not be the same thing you want to do the next, and that there is nothing wrong with this.

Later during Spatharos’ talk, while he showed interviews with professional leaders, I was struck by something that Kevin Carroll, a creative change agent at Nike, said: “But what is that thing that brings you joy?” He suggested that college students don’t search for their joy, they search for a job. He said that these things — joy and job — can be the same thing. What brings you joy and what you do to make your living need not be mutually exclusive.

As obvious as it may sound, this is one of the most beneficial lessons any student can learn.

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Graphic: Cody Shumacher