Rochester, NY

From 6.04.04

He was born a ramblin’ man

Andrew Harrison says he may be seen as both a fearless “seeker” and a malcontent in the throes of a “quarterlife crisis,” but either way, this Greece native is determined to find fulfillment.

By MELISSA LANG / mlang@mpnewspapers.com

When Andrew Harrison set out April 6 on a go-’til-the-money-runs-out hunt for enlightenment, he wished the search would at least lead him to his dream job.

What he didn’t expect was that the search would become his dream job.

“I’m loving this,” he said. “There hasn’t been one day when I’ve regretted what I’m doing.”

Earlier this year, Harrison, 28 and a Greece native, swapped a secure sales job in Charlotte, N.C., for a cross-country journey with a lofty objective: He would interview people passionate about their jobs in hopes of unearthing his own purpose in life. He launched a Web journal and printed up business cards that read “Andrew Harrison, Seeker.”

“I just felt I could do something more,” he said of his days on the job he held for more than two years.

He traded an apartment with a city view for a Hyundai Santa Fe with room for a tent. A dwindling bank account has replaced an annual salary of about $50,000. Kindly strangers and new acquaintances have taken over for a tight corps of friends, some of whom told Harrison his plan to all but abandon the life he’d so carefully created was, in a word, weird. And that’s putting it nicely.

“I’m sure there are people out there who think, ‘Dude, this guy’s got a screw loose,’” the 1993 Olympia High School alum said last week during a cell phone call from Little Rock, Ark. “But I’m pretty with-it. This is something I’m excited about.”

Harrison, whose interviews with everyone from a judge to a janitor already fill nearly 200 pages, said he plans to pen a book based on his 90-city adventure. It seems that for a voracious reader with a master’s in mass communication, writing about the fulfilled can be, well, fulfilling.

So far he’s met some big-time politicians, reconnected with a few old friends and chatted up more than a couple of “pretty girls.” (“It’d be great if my future bride likes to travel as much as I do,” he said, still single but “open” to marriage.)

Harrison’s journal entries range in tone from philosophical to funny. He describes his first nervous encounter with one impressive interview subject, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court of Arkansas. He writes about a pelican he once watched dive for fish in Palm Beach, Fla. He peppers his narratives with colorful descriptors – “sweet,” “geez,” “weird” – and it’s obvious the man’s having a blast.

“He won’t look back and regret,” said Harrison’s mom, Sharon, who lives on Edgemere Drive with his dad Ken, an Eastman Kodak Co. retiree. “But we did worry about whether he was going to be able to take care of the bills. We were concerned at first.”

So what do his parents tell the neighbors when they ask about their son?

“Well, we just say, ‘Andrew’s on the road,’” Sharon Harrison said. “Most people are very enthusiastic. And, of course, some people ask, ‘Why’s he doing that?’”

Indeed, young adults like Andrew Harrison have become so intriguing a phenomenon their collective ordeal is the subject of an explanatory best-seller. “Quarterlife Crisis” documents the post-college discontent that plagues upper-middle-class 20-somethings who, by most accounts, have it pretty good.

And if a loosely structured soul-searching trip seems self-indulgent, Greece psychologist Sharon Sterling said that’s because it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“If it’s about finding something that makes them happy, rather than being miserable for the rest of their lives, then I guess you could classify that as self-indulgence in its most general sense,” she said. “For some people, the value of an experience doesn’t lie in the money or security.”

Sterling has counseled such people – often they’re finishing up college, or are in their first jobs. Life isn’t meeting their expectations, and the prospect of a mundane, meaningless future has them panicked.

“There’s a question of, ‘Do I want to do this, or not? What direction should I take?’” Sterling said. The young adults of today are dissatisfied with the unexamined life – perhaps more so than those of previous generations, she said.

The future for folks like Harrison is replete with options. And with more choice comes the challenge of wading through the possibilities and arriving at the one that fits best.

“I think, too, that technology allows us to be more aware of how other people live,” Sterling said. Call it the “grass is always greener” syndrome.

Sterling said her job isn’t to recommend or discourage any single course of action. What she can do is help patients see why they’re disappointed, and how to feel better.

“The key is to prevent someone from making an impulse decision,” she said. “There needs to be a clear vision of the consequences, an understanding that the choice you make can impact the rest of your life.”

And for some, that’s exactly the idea: Whatever I find, it’s got to be better than this.

“I’m in a situation where I can do this,” Harrison said. “I don’t have a house or a wife or a child. And maybe this is why I don’t have those things.”

Harrison starts every day around 8 or 8:30 a.m. He fills his hours with scheduled interviews. He drives, jots out some journal entries and e-mails, then drives some more. He has stayed at hostels or under a tent, with old buddies and friends of friends. He does some work for his old company and has yet to miss a bill: His student loan, car and health insurance payments all remain in order.

“He was very methodical about it, and excited, so we just told him to go for it,” Sharon Harrison said. “And people have been so welcoming. He’s very personable and sincere, with a tender heart and soul.”

And a healthy sense of self doesn’t hurt, either. Andrew Harrison’s well aware his decision dumbfounds some. His former employer – who, Harrison said, is “waiting for me to snap out of it” – even sent him to an industrial psychologist in hopes of keeping him on board.

“That was really neat,” Harrison said of his time in therapy. He’s happy to analyze pretty much anybody – even the people picked to analyze him.

Harrison sat in on court proceedings in an effort to score the interview with that Arkansas state justice. He’s looking to chat with an old college professor – a man who would presumably prefer the stand-out former student be gainfully employed. And he managed to steal a few moments with Elizabeth Dole after he spotted the North Carolina senator in an airport.

“It makes me excited when other people get excited for me,” he said. “It makes me feel like what I’m doing is right.”

Fast facts: Andrew Harrison

Who: The 28-year-old Greece native is traveling the country, interviewing people from all walks of life.

When: He started his trip April 6; he’s not sure when it will end.

Why: He’s looking for his purpose in life.

For more about him: Visit his Web site at www.IamOnTheRoad.com.