(road-tripper #1) I think when I was maybe in first grade, that's when I first remember not being able to spell, like at all.

Like, all the other kids can spell, Nicole can't spell.

(road-tripper #2) I would slur words, and the teacher constantly had to correct me.

And I would watch other kids do it and they never needed that.

So, that was definitely like, the pivotal moment where I was like, alright, something's wrong.

(roadtripper #3) As a kid, you never go up to someone and be like, "This is wrong," like I'm, I'm not doing this right; this is a problem.

This... you know, I'm not going to get to go to college, I'm not going to get to do the things that everyone else does.

It's just not going to happen for me...

It's just not going to happen.

♪ I got properly diagnosed; I went to a psychologist.

And she diagnosed me with non-verbal processing disorder.

I can't read body language because I don't know what that means to you.

A lot of our communication is non-verbal.

I got really anxious about everything and I was really stressed out about people knowing that I had a learning disability, and what people would think.

School hurt.

(road-tripper #1) It's hard to say really what dysgraphia is, because for me it's just life.

I'll write a paper, and I'll spell a word like five different ways in the same paper.

You would think by this age I would know how to spell words, but for some reason there's just a disconnect there.

(roadtripper #2) So you have a teacher, teaching something boring.

You have a test in maybe a week, but man, that pencil looks really exciting to look at and play with-- But man, you should really pay attention.

Oh, what's that over there?

That is what it is.

It is a constant struggle, and every little thing distracts you.

(Nicole) I really feel like if I had someone saying, you know, this isn't weird, I think that would be really good.

That's one reason I'm doing this is because I really wanna be ok with who I am.

♪ (Stephanie) We are doing a, like, three and a half week road trip, and we're hitting San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, going to Portland, and we're doing like the top half of the United States.

(Noah) We're going to be interviewing people, seeing sites, doing great adventures.

Just doing all sorts of cool stuff.

(Nicole) I've kinda been in this just like I'm taking a job 'cause it's a job, right?

We're gonna look at people who went into a job because it's what they want to do.

(Stephanie) The theme is learning differences and ADHD or attention issues.

We're also interviewing like a bunch of different inspirational people that inspire me and inspire Noah and Nicole.

(Nicole) People who have really, uh, you know, overcome some challenges that we might face.

What else could a 20-something who doesn't know what they're doing with their life ask for?

[laughs] [clapping] (Stephanie) Oh my gosh!

Oh my gosh, ok!

Hiii!

(Noah) Are you a hugger, or a...?

(Stephanie) Oh, I'm a hugger!

I hug everybody.

Hi!

(Noah) I felt like I wasn't ready, ‘cause like, it was like, oh man!

I'm really in California.

I'm really about to go on this month-long road trip!

(Stephanie) There it is guys!

Yeah!

(Noah) It's big!

(Stephanie) Go dog, go!

Oh my gosh, he runs really fast!

(Noah) Ahh!

Oh I'm down.

I'm down.

We can make this work, oh yeah.

(Stephanie) Cool!

(Noah) Oh yeah.

S'mores.

(Stephanie, laughing) Of course.

(Nicole) So we're going to be actually living in an RV.

I've never even been in an RV, so I think like it's gonna be a little challenging in some ways because, you know, it's always a little nerve-wracking when you're like ok, I'm gonna be stuck with like two other people and a film crew that I don't really know that well.

Like, how all of that will fit in the RV.

And, what about laundry?

Do we stop at a laundromat?

I hope we can stop at a laundromat.

I don't think I have enough underwear to last the whole trip.

(Noah) Mama's like, "You can never have enough white-T's."

Oh, ok mom.

(Nicole) But you know what?

Whatever it is, it's gonna be worth it.

So I'll, um, I'll figure it out.

[laughs] (Noah) That's a fridge.

Oh yeah, I can work with this.

This isn't hard.

I'm a little bit nervous.

I'm a guy and there are two girls.

So being like the only guy is like, hmmm!

I don't want to seem rude to ask, but does that hairbrush have all your hair on it?

(Stephanie) Yeah.

(Noah) Cool.

[laughs] I'm in girl town.

I'm, I'm in, I'm in girl town.

[plane flies overhead] (Noah) I didn't enjoy   The Tempest all that much.

It's a play, by Shakespeare.

When I was a kid, that'd probably take me, like, a year.

(laughs) 'Cause I sucked at reading, I was never really good at reading.

"See how the magic, the terror, the romance, and the comedy of Shakespeare's shape... shakes, mmm..." (Noah's mother) Noah's has been talking about college since middle school.

But it's bittersweet because I think he's nervous.

I think you know like, being tough, you know like, "I'm not going to say I'm nervous or scared."

But, I think, um, I think that there's, of course, there's a part of him that's nervous.

Yeah, I think so.

♪ (Stephanie) We've already bonded a little bit over having an LD and having attention issues, and like we were talking about we didn't really bring a book to read, like it's on the packing list because none of us really read ‘cause it's not really a fun thing to do for us.

It's kind of weird 'cause I don't really know what to expect for the next 29 days, 30 days.

So I'm, I'm excited though.

I'm really really excited.

♪ (Stephanie) Today, we're doing our first interview.

(Noah) I feel excited, but I also feel like a little bit nervous.

These people have done like amazing things with their lives, things I only dream of doing.

(Stephanie) I love hearing people's stories, ‘cause everyone has a story, everyone has- has something that makes them unique and makes them who they are.

And being able to sit down and actually allow someone to tell you that story, that's really important for me on this trip.

(Nicole) So, we're going to see John Rodriguez, who is an ice sculptor and geometry teacher.

He actually dropped out of high school to be an ice sculptor, but then he was diagnosed with dyslexia.

He also went to Harvard.

I didn't think you could drop out of high school and still get into Harvard.

[laughs] (Noah) Hey!

(John) How you doing?

(Noah) Noah.

(Stephanie) Hi, Stephanie (John) Nice to meet you.

(Stephanie) Nice to meet you.

(Nicole) Nicole.

Nice to meet you!

In school, I-I was kinda like the failure kid, you know?

Ended up failing, you know, first grade, and then, hah, who fails first grade, right?

♪ (John) By the time I was, uh, sixteen and I was a junior I just stopped caring.

I eventually dropped out of high school.

But uh, before I dropped out, I signed up for an ROP class.

It was like a chef's class.

Never seen a class like that before.

He wasn't talking about rigid, sit still, be quiet, he was all over the place, up the front of the class, down the middle.

And I was like, wow, this is cool, this is not like, you know, my last, you know sixteen years of life have been miserable.

And I did so well that he recommended me for a job at a hotel in the kitchen.

We walked in to like the back of the hotel.

The chef was making an ice sculpture, and my- my jaw just dropped, like wow.

This is like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

[chainsaw noises] (John) For the first time in my life I was like wow, my mind feels relaxed.

Because I'm working with a three-dimensional object as opposed to like, two-dimensional, and it just felt good.

Started doing carvings for the hotel, and then I got a call from like the food and beverage director from American Hawaii Cruises.

In, you know, Honolulu, Hawaii?

(Noah) Yeah.

(John) And he's like-- (Noah) Wait wait wait.

Wait, Hawaii?

[laughs] (John) Yeah, in Hawaii, yeah!

[Noah laughs] (John) My life, ever since I looked for another thing to be good at has been happy.

Like, I've been happy.

After I had worked on the ships for awhile, I decided to go back to school.

And, I started at community college.

You know, they put stuff on the bulletin boards.

"You may have dyslexia if you have..." and it listed ten things.

So I was like, "Can't spell very well."

Hey, that's me!

[laughs] (Noah, laughing) Check!

(John) But then the next one was like, "slow reader."

Me too!

(Noah, laughing) Check!

(John) I think it was like nine out of the ten things were me so I was like, wow.

So I actually went in and I got tested.

And I found out that I had dyslexia, which was like, at least I knew the name of- of the thing that had caused me my struggles, but it had also given me all the talents to, you know, do ice sculpting, too.

♪ (John) You know, I got my accommodations and all of a sudden, the kid that, the failure kid that was only getting like, you know, C's, C minuses, D's, things like that...

I started to get A's!

And I was like, wow!

You're just as smart as anyone else, you just learn differently.

And I decided, well, let's uh, apply to private college.

I applied to Harvard.

[laughs] (Noah) That was just your first one?!

Like, let's think of Harvard!

(John) And then yeah, I was uh, admitted to Harvard.

(Noah) Alright, so my question is, if you could, knowing what you know now, restart everything you've ever done with your life, without dyslexia and ADHD, would you?

(John) No, no way.

No way.

I would never, that'd be, that's too much of who I am.

I- I think the suffering for sixteen years was really rough.

That's still something that, you know, I think is painful even, even now.

But I credit dyslexia with giving me the talents to, you know, do ice sculpting, too.

So, I think instead of doing what you're supposed to do, sit and really think about what you want to do.

Don't live somebody else's life.

You need to take your talents, and live your life.

And I think that's the key to happiness.

If you wanna try, if you wanna try.

(Noah) I'm gonna pop these on.

Ok, the John Rodrigues interview was super cool.

Ba dum shh!

Let's do this.

(Stephanie) He was just like, ok, here you go, like, here's a saw, like, you go for it.

And it was just like one of those moments where it was like, we were all like really?

(Noah) He made this beautiful fish for us.

We got to make like the small little details on it, which were like super cool.

(Stephanie) I want to be as happy as John Rodriguez.

That should be my goal.

If I'm just happy, that would be enough.

(Nicole) I graduated with a bachelor of science in Business Administration and Marketing, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it.

I'm kinda at that in-between stage where I've been just trying out some jobs because they're here and because I need to make some money to pay off student loans, but still trying to find like my actual passion.

(Nicole's mother) Since Nicole graduated from college, she's been saying it's not true that you can be anything you wanna be, you can do whatever you want to do.

She said, "That's not true."

I think she's always struggled with finding herself.

I'm hoping this will help her find herself a bit.

(Nicole) What I want to walk away with is just courage to, you know, be myself, and I guess hope is the next one.

Sometimes I feel like I get pushed down in this hole where like you're gonna just live in a studio apartment forever, and I think it'd be neat to see some people who've been able to do more, um, and still be happy.

♪ [crowd noises] (Noah) We're in San Diego Comic-Con, and I'ma go see my idol, Batman.

You don't know what you're talking about!

♪ (female #1) When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an astronaut.

I wanted to be a scientist.

And, when I got out of high school, my parents wanted me to go work at the pen factory in town assembling pens.

You know, go work in a factory, go get married, have kids.

Um, there's still a little bit of a rift in the family because I went off and did my own thing.

So, it doesn't always turn out perfect, but I can live with it.

I love my family.

They just really don't tell their friends I build video games.

(Bonnie) You create yourself everyday.

Every action you do, decision you make, you are creating yourself everyday and when you do that intentionally, you will have confidence.

(Nicole) She kind of has this vision for a world where, um, people are different, but it doesn't stop them from doing anything, and I really, really like that outlook on the world.

(Noah) And, you're clear.

Whoa.

Nah, you gotta wait.

We're interviewing Howie Mandel.

And I'm pretty excited and at the same time feel like I'm gonna throw up.

He's been on-- (all together) Deal or no Deal.

(Stephanie) America's Got Talent (Nicole) He's a comedian too.

(Stephanie) Are you sweating, Noah?

(Noah) No, I'm not!

(Nicole) Tell me a little bit about where you were at when you were around our age.

(Howie) I was a mess!

I knew that I had issues not allowing me to concentrate in school.

Those issues would make me anxious.

I was very depressed.

I didn't have friends.

Umm, you know, I was just a mess!

♪ (Howie) I came up at a time when we would not be doing a television show like this or even anything to be recorded because of the stigma.

But I accidentally came out on the air on a radio show, on a, on the Howard Stern show about, you know, fifteen years ago.

I was having a panic attack in the room.

Didn't know we were live on the radio and I said, "Listen you gotta help me, I go to a psychiatrist, "I'm gonna pass out now, you gotta open the door you gotta let me out."

And I went out an- and realized that it was on, uh, national, it was broadcast nationally.

And I thought for the moment, I thought, "Oh my god, it just went out, my life is ruined!"

I just told the world I'm a mental case.

Nobody's gonna give me a job.

I never felt more alone and I walked out into that street and I'm looking down and I'm facing into traffic and I thought, "What do I do?

Do I just end it now?"

And some guy came up to me.

"Are you Howie Mandel?"

And I went "Yeah."

He goes, "I just heard you on Howard Stern."

And I thought, oh my god, my- my whole, I had a lump in my throat and he said the two words that changed my life.

And the two words that changed my life were "me too."

What I realized from that moment on is you can talk about what you have and what you have and whatever challenges you have-- nobody's perfect!

And no two people are alike!

And no two people think alike.

And that's the beauty of humanity.

♪ (Stephanie) I, I want to take you back a little bit.

You started talking on stage and, um, what was that like, how did that feel?

(Howie) You know it was by accident!

People with ADHD are very impulsive.

Bunch of people said, "You wanna go to a standup comedy show?"

in the seventies.

And I went and saw one in Toronto at this place called Yuk Yuk's, and they said, "Will any amateurs want to get up and try it Monday night?"

And my friend turned to me, at that time, and said, "You should get up."

I went, "Okay!"

And in that moment, I found that was the only place that I was comfortable.

So now I'm doing stand-up comedy.

Then one day, I go and have a meeting, and they lady says, "Can ya act?"

And I go, "Uhh, yes!"

So all of a sudden I was doing drama.

I'm on this dramatic series.

(Noah) You just said yes and all the happened?

(Howie) I just said yes.

And then I get a call one day, "Would you like to do a game show?"

And it was the biggest launch of any game show in history, and everyone was looking at me going, "Deal or No Deal?"

And then they said, you know, "Do you wanna do AGT?"

So, anything that ever happened good in my life or just things that I didn't think about, you know, the future.

"No" is the word that slows us down and stops us.

If you're saying yes, you're moving.

You're on this trip, just go everywhere!

Whatever happens, be open to everything!

Just say yes.

(Nicole) Well, if he's saying yes, can we ask him to sign our RV?

[laughs] (Howie) Yes!

(roadtrippers, laughing] Yay, yeah!

(Howie) Oh my god.

(Stephanie) But yeah, you see everyone has signed it, on the roof up there.

(Howie) Oh my god!

(Nicole) It- it's um, it's a challenge, but you know, I said yes!

(Howie) But what a wonderful, you said yes!

(Nicole) But it was just kinda like uh, he gets it.

I really almost didn't say yes to this like originally in my head I said no, 'cause it's scary for me, scary to be in a small space that I don't really have a space that's quote my own for four weeks.

So it was kinda neat because I felt like, um, in a way there's a bit of a connection there.

(Howie) Says "Howie Mandel said, 'Just say yes.'"

And then I wrote here, "I'm a huge-" and with an arrow pointing to that.

[Stephanie laughs] (Noah) He's a huge fan!

[laughs] [roadtrippers laugh] [road noise] [Stephanie chuckles] (Producer, off screen) What's happening?

(Stephanie, laughing) It's not long enough, I think we gotta pull forward!

I'll be back!

We've been bumping around, like, Orange County Area for a while, L.A. Now we're headed to the- the Bay Area.

(Noah) Right, yeah!

(Stephanie) So, we're going to where I went to college.

Yeah!

♪ (Stephanie) So I distinctly remember in like, kindergarten, lotta things that were really easy for the other kids, I was having just a really hard time.

People'd tell me like, oh, things will click, like, it'll be fine.

All of a sudden one day like it wasn't okay anymore.

I believe that everyone has a purpose and there's something meaningful and that you're supposed to be doing, and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

[crowd cheering] (Stephanie) Being comfortable with me and being comfortable with what I want to do, that's like essential right now.

I don't know what to do next.

I'm just kinda stuck.

♪ (Nicole) As I was driving, along the 101, I saw above me, barely any clouds in the sky!

I saw below me, a pavement valley.

This land was made for you and me!

(Noah) California, I'm moving out here.

Period.

That there's no question, I'm moving out here.

It's amazing.

Sorry Baltimore!

♪ (Nicole) This is like something out of a movie.

♪ (Nicole) You know at first, I thought that I would be able to use my paid time off to go on this trip.

My boss said no, um, that I couldn't go.

I'm giving up my job because of this.

(Nicole) Now we hike!

(Stephanie) Now we hike?

(Nicole) Yeah.

(Stephanie) Cool, trail time!

(Nicole) Before I decide I wanna build a career there forever, I wanna get out there and see other things.

I was really really scared because, you know, I have a lot of bills to pay, I have rent, I have a lot on my shoulders.

I haven't figured it out yet.

I don't know, I don't know, I get nervous if I talk about it I'm just gonna figure it out, I'm gonna figure it out somehow.

I have to, right?

I have to figure it out somehow, I'll figure it out.

[wind gust, roadtrippers breathe] (Noah) Like, just breathe it all in.

♪ (Stephanie) Hello!

Hello.

(Male #1) I'm a designer.

I think of myself as a creative thinker all the way through and a technologist.

Most notably, the biggest project I've worked on, I redesigned the user interface for professor Stephen Hawking, and so I did all of the front-end and all of the interactive development for how Stephen uses his computer.

(Noah) Oh my god!

♪ (Pete) July 20th, 1988, 27 years ago yesterday, I broke my neck in a diving accident.

It left me a quadriplegic at c-, at the cervical four five level.

No one expected me to go anywhere.

The only thing that anybody expected from me was to breathe.

I basically was starting over again at that point, um, and I was always so ashamed of having this learning disability.

I never told anybody about my learning disability.

I went all the way through college getting the accommodations for being in a wheelchair, and not letting anybody know that I was dyslexic.

♪ (Stephanie) Can you talk a little bit more about like, how you felt with that, ‘cause it sounds like from what you said it was easy for you to be in a wheelchair, than it was to have people know that you were dyslexic.

(Pete) Oh yeah.

Um, I, okay, so I go into a room and instantly everybody in the room knows there's a problem; Pete's in a wheelchair.

But, there is no wheelchair for dyslexia.

I may seem self-confident in who I am and what I do and how I do it, but, I'm not.

Um, I struggle every single day with, um, with my ADHD, with my dyslexia.

So, don't think that when you get to a certain point it's all going to be all better and magical.

It's always a struggle, it's always gonna be, sort of, you're always gonna be thinking about it.

I think about it every single day, it's still tough.

(Stephanie) Having a learning disability, it's so hard!

And I know it's gonna be hard and like, I've gone to school for fifteen years or so.

I haven't worked for fifteen years.

So, I'm expecting people to not be as accepting as in school because in education and academia that's something that's talked about and something that's become a lot more known.

In the job market, it's not gonna be that way.

[waves crashing] (Stephanie) I- I don't wanna work in some place that doesn't understand me and doesn't accept that I can't do certain things and it's like a really big internal struggle.

To have something that like hits on your confidence everyday and hits on your like how you feel about you and how you feel in general to like build that back up again and like get through, get through it.

♪ (Male #2) I remember one day, I was on the north buttress of Mt.

Hunter, which was unclimbed at that time.

And I was about 2000 feet up this thing and got avalanched off of it.

Falling off this thing, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna die, and then I bounce and hang on the rope and the avalanche passes and I don't die.

Flew back to town, flew back home, and spent, you know, the next six or eight months going, "Wow, I mean, I don't know if we're gonna do this climb."

♪ (female #2) Yeah, I've had things that I wish worked out differently, or I've had things that I just, wow, hah, that did not go well.

But overall, it doesn't make you unsuccessful, right?

(Rob) Humans, we're so resilient.

We all really wanted to do that climb.

So a year later we were back, and wound up doing that climb to the summit.

(Mara) Maybe that day was a rough one, shoot maybe that week was a bad one.

Maybe ya fell and broke your arm and ya had a couple of three or four bad months but, you still be super successful.

You gotta find success in the little things (Stephanie) I don't trust myself a lot.

I don't trust like I can do things and I don't trust that I'm gonna be okay.

♪ (Rob) You can be terrified by all kindsa situations.

Certainly have physical limitations or mental limitations, but, it's all about determination.

(Stephanie) I'm really stressed out and like, am I gonna be able to do this?

It's really metaphorical ‘cause if I can climb a rock wall that I'm really scared of I can probably do this.

I just need to like trust me.

I need to get outside my head.

♪ But you haven't seen anything yet ♪ ♪ No you haven't seen anything yet ♪ ♪ So I'll stay, and I'll wake up, ♪ ♪ Pondering the consequence of wanderlust.

♪ ♪ You're afraid of what may come.

♪ ♪ So you'll never know the consequence of wanderlust ♪♪ [noises of kids playing, screaming] [restaurant noise] (Stephanie) No one would ever be like, hey, let's go on like a RV together for a month and live together.

Like I don't think I'd ever do this with anybody else.

If I thought about it too hard, I'd probably would be like, oh, I probably couldn't do that, but now I'm just taking it day by day.

It's super fun though.

(in the background) Anyone else for sausage?

(Nicole) We have been on the road for little more than two weeks.

Yeah, so we're like a little more than half way through.

Scary.

♪ (Stephanie) We're gonna be sitting down and talking to people who, you know, may not have got diagnosed very young, and it's just gonna be kinda like, "Oh wow, "like you know exactly how I feel, and yeah that happened to me too.

(female #3) Stephanie.

(Nicole) Nicole.

(Noah) Nicole got help a little bit in her school.

Stephanie didn't get help.

Stephanie was alone the longest out of all of us.

I don't know how she did it.

♪ (Evelyn) I actually excelled in elementary school.

I didn't exactly excel in high school, but I did well enough to be on the honor roll like my last year there, so you know I was involved in a lot of activities, um, and did ok.

It was when I got to college and lost my support and scaffolding system that I completely fell apart, and I could not figure out why I could not pull it together.

I had a full scholarship to Duke, which is, you know, that's no easy thing to get, um, but, I am not an alum of Duke, lemme just tell you that.

I wa- I was there for five years but uh, did not come back with a degree, because I struggled.

I really, and now I understand and know it was my ADHD.

I di- I had no clue at the time, what it was.

I internalized it all like it was all my fault that I wasn't able to do this and I was a flawed person.

Um, so I really didn't even, ‘cause I wouldn't even known what kind of help to get, or what I needed.

♪ (Nicole) Your sons were diagnosed first and then it was you, correct?

(Evelyn) Mhm.

(Nicole) So, um, I'm curious about kind of your reaction and thoughts when you heard yourself being diagnosed with it.

(Evelyn) I think it both cases it was relief.

Because I was able to, at that point, say phew, okay I'm really not a crazy person like I thought I was.

And and I shouldn't say that ‘cause I'm a big mental health advocate, but that's, you know, I felt like I was locked in this mind that didn't get it, that wasn't you know, why can't I function like other people?

I had something I could name.

I had a name for it, for their diagnoses and for my own.

It was a relief, more than anything.

(Stephanie) Out of all the things I think the one biggest thing my parents were afraid of is like "she's not gonna be happy," 'cause school was tough, like everything's just tough.

And it's like how did you get to that point where you're just like, a happy person, and- and are successful and- (Evelyn) Um, you know, part of my philosophy is, an- and some of this comes I think from living with ADHD for so long and seeing how it affected me and my kids and how they've lived with it.

You do what you can, and the rest you just let go.

You know, grab a hold of what you can make a difference with and what you can change.

And so, wha- part of the reason that I think I can be confident and and happy about what I'm doin' is I feel like I have made a difference for people.

Helping adults find their passion, find whatever coping skills, the support.

It's not about learning to live with your ADHD or learning to live in spite of it, it's learning to thrive with it and to celebrate it, and to understand how it has to do as much with your successes as it might have to do with any challenges you have.

(Noah) The number one, like, myth of what dyslexics are or ADHD people are is that you're stupid, you're an idiot.

But to see that- that all those mentors are now successful, even though they had LD's, that stigma has totally been blown out of the water for me.

So, to me, that's baloney to begin with.

(Nicole) The one thing I'm noticing that's in common with the leaders is that whatever challenges they have in their life, whether it's not getting a job, or getting fired from a job, something like that, they all are able to see it in a positive light.

And I think that is really important to be able to look at your challenges and not be angry about them, to accept them.

Really, I can't think of a single leader who hasn't done that.

And maybe that's what really makes a leader.

(Noah) Nicole openly expresses how she feels and what she thinks, and what's wrong.

At the beginning of the trip there was none of that.

Now she's like very open to talk to us, and I love it.

(Stephanie) Six hours and six minutes, guys.

(Noah) Woo!

Let's do this!

(Stephanie) 405 miles.

(Noah) I'm so pumped!

(Nicole) Lemme think this through a second.

(Stephanie) Do you need help getting out?

(Noah) Oh wait, yeah do you need me get out and help you get out, or?

(Nicole) Um, just like so I don't hit any people.

(Noah) Yeah, okay I'm gonna get out.

(Nicole) I love this little camera guy.

There's trees there.

I can't see, a leaf went in front of my camera.

Should I keep going?

(Noah) Jeez.

(Nicole) Tell him to get in, sometime.

♪ (Noah) Bye Chicago.

♪ (Noah) We're in Indiana, woo!

(Stephanie) I like driving days ‘cause I feel Nicole kinda like lets loose a little bit and you know she's sitting in the driver's seat singing to herself, and you know Noah's on his like gaming device or whatever and it's kinda like this is like what we would be like if we were actual roommates.

♪ (Noah) The stuff we're doing here and the people I'm meeting, means a lot at this very moment.

I want people to be able to see this for as long as they can, and understand that they're not by themselves.

♪ [bike chain clicking] ♪ (Nicole, with a New York accent) We are in the great city of New York.

In "Brookland."

Wait, that was a really bad accent don't put that on there.

♪ (Male #3) You know I've outed myself as someone who was LD and- and older people coming up to me like, "Baby, "you just didn't have a good enough teacher, you could read."

You know you just, you know, like, don't tell people that.

You know, that kinda thing.

You know as an African American, heh, there's also this kind of like, "We are a tough people."

You know and it's like it's true, I mean like we've- we've gone through a lot.

But with that, I think there becomes a burden of not showing the world anything that may be perceived as a weakness.

(Noah) Mmm, right.

(LeDerick) That is a weight that is too heavy for anyone to carry.

(Noah) I really think this trip is mainly an identity thing, where I just need to find my own identity of like who I was as an African American or as a person with ADHD and dyslexia, and so much more... (LeDerick) Ya know, Noah, you know it's nice to see you brother ‘cause there are, there are only a handful of us out here.

(Noah) Yeah, I know.

(LeDerick) Really, you know like being able to kinda represent those two worlds, you know.

(Noah) Right.

(LeDerick) The worst thing you can do is to walk around feeling ashamed of who you are, right?

Ashamed of who you are.

But there's stll just like a lot of education that has to happen in different communities, right?

About what diversity is and what strength is, and particularly diversity as it applies to- to cognition, to how our minds work.

(Noah) When I first applied for this trip, I really didn't think I was gonna get much out of this.

Wow, was that like a slap in the face!

[laughs] To be like you are wrong!

♪ (Stephanie) After you graduated, when you were doing film, did you ever have a point where youre like, you know, like this is really hard, like I don't know if I'm good at this, or did you just always feel like you had a talent for this?

(Female #3) I always had that question.

And honestly, I don't know if that's partly my personality, partly LD, and doubting myself, and being you know, having a little residue of insecurity that it's so easy for you to make little mistakes like spell "and" "a-d-n" every time you write it, you know?

It's gonna possibly undermine your sense of how good you are at something.

And, if you can get early on in touch with, "Okay, that's a glitch but I have these other parts that think in pictures more than other people!"

Or, you know, that, "I can sort of see a problem and all of a sudden solve it."

It is so much easier to just be matter-of-fact about the whole thing and not, you know, have that, that shame.

(Stephanie) I'm literally on like this incredible movement and journey where all I have all this incredible support and someone is allowing me to just have this experience and be myself.

It's just kinda like overwhelming at points.

We're all coming together under this thing and it's all because we have this label.

(Stephanie) It's my first time being in New York and so therefore it's my first time on the New York subway, so I'm excited!

It's gonna be an experience.

Let's do this!

[subway noises] [Noah mumbles to himself] (Noah) There we go!

Wrong way!

♪ (Nicole) I- I'm not very good at holding back the negative sometimes.

My mom was always says like, "You're a really negative thinker."

I struggle with that.

I believe this is us, guys.

You ready?

What I've been trying to focus on right now is enjoying the opportunities and learning about the opportunities, because I think I down myself too quickly.

(Sxip) Sxip (Noah) Noah (Sxip) Noah (Stephanie) Stephanie (Sxip) Stephanie (Stephanie) Nice to meet you.

Sorry!

(Nicole) Sorry.

Nicole, Nice to meet you.

(Nicole) Sxip was really cool.

I think he naturally has a very different outlook on life than I do.

(Noah) We were like "Hey, yeah we're gonna do the interview first and then we're gonna like, then we're gonna play some music."

And he's like "No, let me play the music first so you guys can understand."

[Sxip playing music] (Sxip) I always did really poorly in school.

I was a really smart kid, could understand things conceptually but would just always do very poorly.

And my mother says "I know now you were dyslexic, we just didn't know about it then."

I went to school, to college, and there was a band that came through and it, I remember it was this blues band and they needed a keyboarder so I said to my- my dad, I was like "you know, if it wasn't for college I would go and join this band."

and he looked at me and said "why don't you Sxip?

that's what you're gonna do eventually anyway."

And he was right.

I had a pretty winding path.

You know I do solo work, I've been touring for the last two years with a, with a contemporary circus.

But I also compose for theater and film and musicals, and I- I like do more traditional songs too, I write R&B music.

(Stephanie) Oh really?

(Sxip) You know I write, uh, hip hop beats and so, like that's, that's probably, that's the flash, that's like the stuff that I do and people go, "oh, we wanna hire you" but I have a pretty diverse career, I guess, I'd say.

(Stephanie) Kind of going off of that, how did, like, how did this come about?

How did you go from being like "I like music" to like, "I'm gonna tape flutes together" (Sxip) It was just a slow process.

You know, I was always interested in experimental sound, so I kinda always came up with my own strategies for composing, and a lot of what I do is I take small objects and make them sound like epic, epic instruments.

For me my music has to do with no one lives a small life.

Everybody lives an epic life.

Everybody's intimate details are epic to them and a lot of what I do reflects that.

♪ (Nicole) Um, I do wanna ask you, I know it's really hard to get to the point where, you can actually, you know, have a career in music.

Tell me about realizing that you could do this for a living, not just as a hobby.

(Sxip) I don't think I realized it.

It's not like, I was like "oh I could do this," like I'm just gonna do this.

And here's the thing: I don't think you discover who you are, you make who you are.

It's not, you're not like, it's not there.

It's not like "oh I'm gonna do this and I'm this," no.

You're not discovering who you are.

You are creating who you are.

♪ (Nicole) A common theme between all the people we interview is that you just gotta get started.

You just gotta do it.

If I would, you know, need to move somewhere for a job, or need to do something that, you know, would require me to be on the road or something like that like, it's, it's definitely a big confidence builder ‘cause I didn't think I would do as well as I did.

I'm proud of myself because I did it.

(Stephanie) Okay, so we had a great time in New York, and yeah, we're gonna pull out here and head on our way and it's raining, so this is the first time we're gonna be driving in the rain.

So we'll see how that goes.

(Noah) Ooh, there are a lot of crashes.

Alright, yeah, we're gonna avoid, I'm gonna try to avoid most of those.

(Stephanie) Yeah please, that'd be great.

Make sure I don't hit any cars.

(Nicole) I like Noah, but he's not that great at giving directions.

[Noah yelling] (Stephanie) I'm gonna kick you outta the car.

What is my next move?

(Noah) Uh, keep straight.

(Stephanie) And then what do I do?

(Noah) Uh, we'll find out.

Just go.

Go, go, go, go, go.

Keep right, it says keep right.

I don't know what's going on with this phone.

What is going on?

♪ (Stephanie) Woooo!

♪ Come with me, let's go to   the place where we can see ♪   ♪ the stars and   the open sky...♪♪ (Stephanie) I know it's coming to an end and part of me is really tired and wants to go home and shower, get in my bed and the other half of me is like "why don't we just take all of us and keep going?"

♪ (Stephanie) It's our last interview of the trip so, yea, it's gonna be bittersweet but we're excited.

(Noah) Like, we have that one interview, and then we're done.

This is it, the final frontier.

(Male #4) Hi how are you?

(Stephanie) Good to see you.

(Male #4) Good to see you.

(Male #4) Hey there.

Thanks for coming.

(Male #4) Elementary school was just a disaster.

I decided, I think, somewhere along the line that I was gonna be one of two kids.

I was either gonna be the dumb kid, or the bad kid, and I chose to be the bad kid.

I was on, like, I remember the principal, I used to just like walk into his office, and he always knew, like he, he was like, "Hey what'd you do this time?"

You know?

(Noah) That was me!

(Male #4) You too?

(Noah) That was totally me.

(Male #4) You're like "hey" you're like "yeah, you know, I- I didn't..." (Noah) "What's up Mister White?"

(Male #4) I couldn't even explain it half the time.

Could you?

(Noah) "Why are you here, Noah?"

Um.. (Male #4) "The same?

Still can't read?

I mean what do you-- what did you want?"

♪ (David) As someone with a learning disability, I- I was, I was like I wanted to be done with that.

And so when I got into college, I actually thought somehow wrapped into that, like, acceptance, was, uh, like, a cure.

Like, "oh, I'm, I'm good.

I never need to talk about that again, it's not about who I am."

And, when I got to Brown, thankfully, I, uh, quickly forgot that idea.

I realized I didn't wanna be alone.

I was like, "if I do not go and tell my story, "if I don't go find my people, the 'LD/ADHD Mafia' "um, I'm gonna feel alone on this experience the rest of my life.

And that seems crazier."

So the idea of 'Eye to Eye' really came from me wanting to find my community because I don't have a learning disability, I am someone who learns differently.

It's part of my identity as much as anything else and that's what set me on a different trajectory.

So, I started taking education classes and I learned you know, one in five people learn and think like I do.

I'm like, "Well, where are they?

I don't see them, you know, like, if that's true, where, where, where are..." And then I realized the only way I could find them is that I had to start leading with my story.

And so, in my mind, the clearest thing I could do was go and do community service, share my story with a young person.

That was the only thing that came to mind and I found a handful of other people that also went to college with me that said "Yeah, no, we wanna do that too."

[man in class] I had to cheat to stay above a 'C' all through high school.

and when I got to college, at East Stroudsburg University, um, it caught up with me.

And um, I took a test, a reading test and I got like a 17 on the test.

It was, they said "Something's wrong with him."

And uh, they tested me, they realized I had a learning disability.

(David) The idea that it could be something bigger than that, I- I couldn't have told you that.

Uh, I had just like handed over the program to like, the students that remained at Brown, and then they started telling their friends.

Suddenly a chapter popped up at Vassar College, suddenly a chapter popped up at Jersey City University.

One day I get 150 emails in one day.

(Noah) Holy cr... (David) Right?

And I think to myself, "okay, life is telling me something.

"If there's this much interest of people "that are willing to share their story and wanna do service, I have to listen to that."

That was the kick in the butt I needed.

Then not long after, I moved to New York, um, and just started 'Eye to Eye' out of my closet.

(Stephanie) You have this really, like, great drive.

It's kind of like this thing that, you know, you have a problem, and you're gonna go find a mentor, you're gonna go ask for help, you're gonna get, where does that come from?

(David) I guess the thing that drives me the most is learning.

Um, I love learning and I stand for an opportunity where every kid can learn no matter how they learn best.

There are two possibilities for our people: One is that we don't tell our story, and then we live in this place of shame and we're misunderstood, and much of our potential is lost.

The second possibility is the one that I'm really excited about.

Um, it's that idea that by sharing our stories and associating our other gifts and talents with that part of how our brains work, we can unlock something that's amazing for all of us.

The call to action is if you have an LD story, tell someone.

Just tell someone.

♪ (Stephanie) Alright (David) Ya'll ready to meet your LD/ADHD family?

(Stephanie) Yeah!

Let's do it.

(David) Let's go [Crowd cheering and clapping] LD proud to be!

LD proud to be!

(David) Are you ready?

[Crowd cheering and clapping] LD proud to be!

LD proud to be!

(David) You're in a different place now, at the end of this journey.

People are gonna wanna call you.

There are kids who you do not know, who are gonna listen to what you have done this summer, and it's gonna change their lives.

They're gonna wanna know what you've learned.

The key is take that call, don't let it stop with you.

(Stephanie) The best thing you can do is share your story and he just leads with that.

When someone is so open and honest about something that's so stigmatized, it has this great effect on you.

That the things that I've been through and the things that I've lived are worth talking about.

(Noah) Thinking about going to college, I never was like, really gonna tell everyone.

I was only gonna be like probably privately be like, go to a teacher and be like "hey, I have dyslexia and ADHD, I'm gonna need some help" ‘cause that's what I was taught to do.

Now, I think I'm gonna do that.

I think I'm gonna tell everyone like, "hey, I got dyslexia and ADHD, do you?

Cool.

If not, cool."

(Stephanie) People in the LAI community, we are freakin' force to be reckoned with.

There are just so many of us out there and we're just this different thinking, accepting, empathetic, massive power-force.

(Stephanie) The things that we could do if we all come together and using all these differences and being aware of what strengths we have, that's a, that's an incredible amount of energy and an incredible amount of power.

♪ (Nicole) I think I really needed some hope.

I think I was kind of down in the dumps about careers.

I think I was giving up in a way.

I think seeing all these people happy in their careers and happy in their lives, that was super refreshing because it's just the environment I work in, people weren't like that.

I'm realizing that it's very important to me to be able to do a job like that.

The thing is, you're given a hand in life and you don't have a say in it.

You don't get to choose what cards you get, but you get to choose how to play them.

I think everybody can kinda relate to that, there's something going on in their lives that it's just, what they've been dealt.

And I know this trip is all about, you know, saying "okay, we're this club of LD people," but really, I think everybody has to kinda figure out their own accommodations for how they learn, how they think you know, even just for life.

Just, everybody's a little bit different.

Everybody's an individual.

I'm not dysgraphia, I'm Nicole.

And, Nicole learn in this way, and maybe Nicole doesn't 100% know how she learns but she's figuring it out and she's communicating that with the people who need to help provide that for her.

(Noah) Today is the last day.

We're all flying out home.

Getting outta here.

Come on, Stephanie, pack up.

[Stephanie whimpering] (Noah) Come on.

(Noah) This summer, I went on a trip of a lifetime.

I didn't know what was on the US.

I didn't know how all these amazing people exist and I didn't know how all these amazing places existed.

I've taken way more from this than I have in my whole 18 years of living.

Literally.

Thinking back to before this trip, I used to see too big of a picture.

It was sometimes overwhelming where I would get like, too anxious or nervous.

But, on this trip, I've had to take it a step at a time.

I've had no choice.

I think I'll keep doing that, just taking it a step at a time.

(Director, off screen) So what's next for Noah?

(Noah) To be honest with you, I don't know.

And it's okay I don't know.

Just to take it a step at a time.

It's alright.

I got this small plan of going to college for four years but after the four years, whatever comes my way.

Like, seriously, like, whatever comes my way.

(Nicole) We're coming down to the home stretch.

See, I don't need no man to close my bag.

(Stephanie) You go, Nicole.

You're a strong, independent woman.

(Nicole) Well, I'm gonna leave it open a little ‘cause I might try to squeeze a couple things in there.

(Noah) It feels like you're leaving family at this point, like, honestly I see them as family.

♪ (Stephanie) I want this energy and I want this drive and I want this feeling to last forever like, if I live every day, like every day as a roadtrip day then I would just like, the things I could get accomplished in my lifetime would be so amazing.

Like, oh my gosh.

Like, this energy that I have and this drive, and I- I feel so good.

It's gonna be crazy if like one day like, someone's gonna look back on this and be like "Yeah, this is her when she was 22 and look at her now."

And I don't even know what that's gonna be like but I'm gonna do something great somewhere.

Eh, group hug.

To just like, keep this feeling is just gonna be so great.

It just makes me so excited.

♪