Talks, Burgers & Goodbyes, Oh My!

It just hit me. I’m spending 40 days in a Toyota Scion with the same person. While we’re great friends as of right now, close quarters and bad mix cds could mean other things…


We’ve still got about a million things to buy, stuff in and check off of our pre-departure list, all before an evening farewell barbecue with family and friends. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about this next part of the adventure. It seems that I do all I can to avoid normalcy then, just as it becomes enjoyable, I mix it all up again! Nonetheless, this mix is certain to be memorable.


We’re starting in LA then onward to San Fran, Portland, Seattle, Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Omaha, Little Rock, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Atlanta, Greesboro, Montreal, Denver, Burlington, Concorde, Boston, New York and DC. Yes, we are both insane. Today it was pretty sweet – we were at an international school in South Gate, Los Angeles talking to the leadership class about launching Ventures through a partner organization, OneWorldNow! These kids go through all of high school in a trilingual environment – English, Spanish and Arabic or Chinese. WHOA! Needless to say, they had some phenomenal ideas, and I think we may get a solid 5 to 8 teams from the school! These kids are all from modest backgrounds and most will be the first in their families to go to college, which is pretty cool!

Well, hittin’ the road shortly, so back to packing…

The Most Ridiculous LA Moment Ever

So I’m sitting down to lunch with Matt Miller, Youth Venture’s rockstar extraordinaire, at a little sidewalk café in West Hollywood when – at the table next to us – a woman plops down with her dog. They’re clearly on a date. I’m perusing the menu, Matt is perusing the menu, the woman next to us is perusing the menu, the dog is panting. I order, Matt orders, the woman orders, the dog is yapping. I get my food, Matt gets his food, the woman gets her food and the dog…gets a bottle of Evian poured into a restaurant-supplied dog dish!


Homeless people are cruising the streets right in front of the restaurant, 25% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to clean water and this dog’s chugging down a bottle of France’s finest. This was my first post-trip experience when I couldn’t help but wonder, “why does the world make absolutely no sense?” I was born in the US inside arbitrary borders (lines) that were drawn by people hundreds of years ago and because of this randomness my life equates to sunshine, a college degree, patio restaurants and Evian-drinking canines. Person X was born in India inside arbitrary borders (lines) that were drawn by [western] people dozens of years ago and because of this randomness his or her life equates to monsoon rains, limited access to education, and quite possibly, extreme poverty. Does this arbitrary nature make sense to anyone? Why, because I was born in this “box,” should I be entitled to so much while someone else, in an entirely different box, has so little? I don’t get it.

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Kyle Taylor