Miami, FL
From 5.21.04
At 28, Andrew Harrison,
had it all. Then he gave it all
up to search for more
meaning in his life. Now
he’s on the road looking for
stories to inspire him. A
dreamer? Maybe, but…
BY ASHLEY FANTZ
afantz@herald.com
A few months ago, Andrew
Harrison had a profitable sales
job that allowed him to work
from home, a new SUV, a nice
apartment, a friendly boss, a
circle of loyal friends — and a
nagging feeling that it was all
wrong.
‘‘I just woke up one morning
and thought, ‘Is this it? Is
this all there is? Am I going to
do this for the next 30 years?’ ’’
he said.
For more than hour at a Las
Olas cafe, Harrison, a 28-yearold
from Charlotte, N.C., who
has a crew cut, a master’s in
advertising and buttoned-up
seriousness, spoke about his
decision two months ago to
quit his job. He tossed his
belongings into his SUV and,
rising gas prices be damned,
decided to drive across the
country, with occasional side
trips by plane. His first month
he divided between North
Carolina and Florida.
Where the road ends, he
has no idea.
The road’s end will come
whenever he achieves enlightenment,
or an empty bank
account. Using his savings and
a video and tape recorder, he’s
interviewing everyone from
janitors to bank CEOs who
love their job. Talking to
them, he thinks, may get him
closer to uncovering his own
purpose in life.
In the past month, he has
talked to dozens of people —
a music composer, maintenance
man, high school principal,
entrepreneur, reporter,
lawyer — even Sen. Elizabeth
Dole of North Carolina,
whom he cajoled into talking
after bumping into her at an
airport.
A note to skeptics here:
Harrison was not dreaming of
a big-bucks book deal or Winnebago
decorated with a
sponsor’s logo. The Herald
heard about him; he did not
contact the paper.
His website, www.iamontheroad.com,
chronicles his encounters in a diary
style that portrays him as
both refreshingly earnest and
naively inexperienced. At one
point, he marvels on a flight to
the Caribbean that he has
never before flown over a
large body of water.
But that doesn’t mean he’s
a shy rube. Before his journey,
he e-mailed Dallas Mavericks
owner Mark Cuban, whose
Internet companies made millions
in the 1990s, for financial
backing.
‘‘He said, ‘It’s a neat idea,
but do it yourself,’ ’’ said Harrison.
‘‘And he was right. It’s
better that way.’’
Teresita Wardlow, director
of guidance at Miami’s Monsignor
Edward Pace High
School, met with Harrison on
Wednesday. ‘‘I talk to so
many kids who go after the
money first,’’ she said. ‘‘The
kids who automatically say, ‘I
want to be a lawyer.’ Rarely
do any of us — no matter how
old — get to step back and
ask, ‘What’s the point? What
will make me happy?’ ’’
GENERATION X
But Wardlow, 40, suspects
Harrison’s project reflects a
grandiose, unrealistic sense of
entitlement that many people
in their 20s have — that they
deserve monetary success
and personal perks. The pressure
to achieve early is
immense. TV Reality shows
that celebrate unbridled
ambition (The Apprentice)
and glamorous match-ups
(The Bachelor) don’t help.
Harrison hung a lot of his
road trip idea on this year’s
bestseller, Quarterlife Crisis, a
book of testimonials with
chapters called ‘‘Anti-Depressants,’’
‘‘Apartments’’ and
‘‘Austin Powers.’’ Examining
the lives of mostly upper-middle-
class young adults suffering
from ‘‘affluenza,’’ postcollege
burnout seemed devastating
enough to spawn an
Oprah episode called ‘‘The
Turbulent 20s.’’
It was Quarterlife Crisis
that turned Harrison’s mother
selling security equipment,
which paid him upward of
$50,000.
JUST DO IT
But she also knew that
eventually his unhappiness
would catch up with him, and
it’s best to live one’s dreams
before one has a mortgage or
a spouse. Harrison’s father,
who has worked for the same
companies for decades, took
more persuading.
‘‘I just had to do it for them
to see that I was serious, and
then they came around,’’ he
said. His parents plan to meet
up with him somewhere during
his 70-plus city odyssey.
‘‘I think everyone realizes
things are different now in the
way young people live,’’ said
John Chandler, 85, of Boynton
Beach. ‘‘They have some pressures
we didn’t.’’
Harrison stayed with the
longtime family friend for
three days and interviewed
Chandler, a war veteran and
retired 35-year employee of
Bausch & Lomb.
‘‘I know he has some time,
and that’s all he wants — just
time to work it all out before
life goes by,’’ Chandler said.
‘‘He’s doing it his way. And
nobody can blame a kid for
that.’’