222 hours and 5,979 miles later, I am back in my apartment in Los Angeles with fresh insights to life, a deepened sense of peace, and an adventure to share.

For my last college spring break, I decided to go on a solo cross-country train journey. Notable essentials on my packing list included: a minimal itinerary, five books, an iPod, a loaf of bread along with a jar of PB&J, little expectations, and a complete openness for adventure.
In the end, what I got was a truly memorable and meaningful experience. An experience best told as a story made up of a diversity of settings, an eclectic line-up of characters, exciting and unexpected events, and both mundane thoughts and deep philosophical reflections.
*I refer to all people/characters only by an italicized first letter of their name to maintain anonymity.
**As told as a story, this post is VERY long. If you’d like to read just my reflections on the overall trip, scroll to the end.
Hours 0-43 - Train #4 “Southwest Chief” (Los Angeles to Chicago)
I take a seat on the second-level of the Superliner Amtrak train. Later, I would realize that this decision is THE most important one a long-distance train-goer makes; it determines who you share the next 40+ hours alongside, and who, in all likelihood, you will trade life stories with.
I sit next to A. He’s from Hyderbad, India visiting America for the first time. He’s on the train because flying is more expensive. He talks with a subtle accent and an extremely confident tone I find odd but fitting with the black suit he’s wearing. I have difficulty following his jumbled sentence structures, but try my best to use my semi-trained ears to keep up a meaningful conversation. I learn that he works for Airtel “the best” cell service provider in India, and he has a girlfriend who he misses dearly after two weeks of separation. We share recollections about beautiful places in Karnataka. A smiles proudly.
I ask the girl across the aisle where the lounge car is. She tells me, and somehow our brief exchange turns into a full-on conversation. Turns out, C is my age and doing exactly what I’m doing: roaming the country by train! She’s on the tail-end of her trip and tells me I’ve made a great decision I won’t regret.
We end up going to the lounge car together. As the day turns to night, we talk for several hours over cups of hot chai tea. She gives me a crash course in train travel 101 and shares stories from her adventure, mostly about particularly interesting people she’s met along the journey. C is from Fort Wayne, Indiana, a town always a “few years behind”. She’s half Caucasian/half Mexican. Currently, she’s taking a break from college and lives with her mom. C works two part-time minimum wage jobs: one at a pizza parlor and the other at a café in an old mansion (listed on the U.S. Historic Reserve) that averages an incredible…five customers per day.
C is motivated, entrepreneurial, liberal, and curious. During her trip, she tells me about all the ideas that have inspired her along the trip—from sandwich recipes to guerrilla marketing tactics—and how she plans on using them to improve the café. I tell her how impressed I am by her enthusiasm and vision, and how I foresee her owning her own shops one day. C nods in confident agreement. The train stops. We’re somewhere in the middle of Arizona. The conductor speaks on the PA. It turns out a prankster parked a car on the tracks.
I head back to my seat in the coach car to sleep. A is already in dreamland. As I recline my chair, a strong and terrible odor fills my nose. I notice A is shoeless. I eventually shrug it off, realize its part of the journey, and use the opportunity to develop greater patience and tolerance.
I wake up with the rising sun as it casts its warm rays across the expansive snow-covered New Mexico desert. I begin reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s my fourth time reading it. As I lose myself in the pages, I can’t help but feel just like the main character in the book, Santiago, a Spanish shepherd boy on a quest to realize his “Personal Legend” by following his heart amidst great uncertainty.
I go to the lounge car to take in the views. After a few minutes, a man sitting next to me asks me where I’m headed. V and I start talking. Our conversation lasts three hours. I do 10% of the talking because he likes to talk, and I like to listen. V is in his mid 50s and is the fifth-generation owner of a 350 acre organic farm in Colorado. He’s known by people around town as “the walking encyclopedia”. You can easily sense the deep love he has for his children with every word he shares about them.
V talks about the increasing difficulties for American small-scale farmers as well as the huge opportunities for agriculture in today’s technological and globalized 21st century. He shares with me his passion for Mexico and Mexican culture. He’s actually going there next week to broker a salt deal. As V shares with me several of his other innovative agriculture-related entrepreneurial ventures, I finally realize how he got his nickname.
Somehow the conversation shifts into conspiracy theories on WWI up to Vietnam. His once calm and hopeful voice shifts into mistrust and pessimism as he talks about the corruption, greed, and manipulation in our world. I use my questions to guide the conversation back to positive territory. I ask him what motivates his tireless efforts in the face of all the problems in the world. V says it’s “seeing the millions of starving people in the world who could use my help”. I then ask him for some parting words of advice. He tells me to “always look on the bright side” and keep pushing on in “the arm wrestle between good and evil”. Most importantly, he adds, find the right woman who will amplify everything in your life. V smiles as we share in a moment of hopefulness for brighter days ahead. As we part, I realize the eeriness of the encounter: V was so much like the mysterious King in The Alchemist who urged Santiago to never give up on the pursuit of his Personal Legend.
***Wanting to post about my trip as soon as possible, I unfortunately have only written “Hours 0-43” in detail. After getting started, I’ve realized I could write an entire novel on just this short train trip! I may write out the other sections later on. For now, here are the highlights from the rest of the trip:
Hours 44-91 - Chicago
-Connecting heart-to-heart with a gypsy in the streets of Downtown Chicago
-A powerful and moving morning meditation on gratitude in my hostel room
-Surprising a close college friend from the local area, later enjoying lunch high in the sky at “The Signature Room on the 95th”
-Getting mugged for the first time, near the University of Chicago (no need to worry…no harm was done, lost only $5 thanks to some quick thinking)
Hours 92-138 - Train #7 “Empire Builder” (Chicago to Seattle)
-Seat partner, J, a once down-and-out Vietnam veteran whose life miraculously turned around into living his dream as an international film anthropologist documenting obscure cultures and their medical practices
-Meeting L, a retired U.S. foreign trade facilitator, who lived in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and many other developing countries, who talked to me about some of the great inequities in our world that need solving
-Starting to read The Life of Vivekananda by Romain Rolland, learning about the spread of his universal gospel to bridge the East and the West
Hours 139-186 - Seattle
-Visiting Pike Place and connecting with T, a Tibetan shop owner who uses his shop to promote Tibetan culture and peaceful living, who proudly displays an autographed photo of the Dalai Lama
-Wandering the streets of lively Downtown and drinking lots of coffee
-Connecting with a good friend over great food and meaningful conversations on life
-Experiencing one of the happiest scenes I’ve been in: joyous families, enamored newly weds, peaceful pedestrians, enjoy the just bloomed cherry blossoms
Hours 187-222 - Train #11 “Coast Starlight” (Seattle to Los Angeles)
-Seat partner, D, a Berkeley Ph.D in mathematics, with prominent Jewish leftist parents, marched with MLK and told me the I Have a Dream speech was “actually quite boring” when he first heard it
-Shared a meal with (another) Berkeley Ph.D. in mathematics, an American “jumping ship from a sinking country” and in the process of getting Indian citizenship, a major contributor to the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a man with a distressed mind but a loving heart

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Fresh Insights on Life
Freedom and Constraints
My trip in itself represented freedom at its finest. Freedom to adventure, to choose, to live. It felt so liberating to roam without any physical boundaries, without any mental boundaries (expectations from society, from others, from myself).
Collectively, the people I met on the journey, who came from all different walks of life, helped me become aware of the limitless possibilities of my life ahead. I realized that there are truly no boundaries to living the life I want to live! Nothing stops me from changing courses at any moment. At the bottom of it all, the main culprit ever holding me back from any possibility is: myself.
This realization of true freedom has given me even greater passion to continue living the life I lead. Since, from a landscape of limitless paths, I know I am wholeheartedly choosing to travel the one I’m on. This conviction is what keeps my feet moving, especially in challenging and uncertain times.
Most importantly, my realization of freedom, reminds me of how lucky I am. It is an unbelievable blessing to personally be in a position of such incredible freedom (economically, spiritually, culturally). I am among the select few alongside the world’s majority who are bound to much more constrained lives. This recognition and appreciation of my freedom fires my drive to help free others from limited living.
Finding Motionlessness in the Middle of the Commotion
I experienced a new level of peace on my train adventure. Again, using the train as a symbol, I frequently found myself living in the the beautiful stillness of “just being” even as the world outside blurred by at sixty miles per hour. My mind a blank slate of silent awareness. I found myself in the “state of observation” as so eloquently put by Vimala Thakur. In this state, I could just observe, without judgment, the workings of the world.
My trip reaffirmed to me the essential value of inner peace. I noticed how my ability to achieve motionlessness positively impacted the interactions I had with others. It allowed me to connect more easily with any person who crossed my path. Simply observing, not judging, my heart and mind were open, to see each person fully as they were: a fellow brother or sister of our one world family each with a gift to share with humanity.
I also reaffirmed the value of inner peace when it was lost. Namely, after being mugged, I noticed a closure of heart and mind to others and the world. For some time, I had an uncharacteristic hesitancy with strangers. I found myself stuck in a self-centered mindset. Without peace, I also recognized how much more receptive I was to kindness and authenticity. Even the smallest acts, like a waiter at the restaurant saying “Thank You” with a smile as I left, was profoundly touching.
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If you made it this far–congratulations. Thanks for reading and sharing the ride. I hope you can continue living out the great adventure of life freely, peacefully, and joyfully. Until the next train!
