[MUSIC] You don't like your circumstances or yourself stop you, that's beating the odds.

And that's what I'm doing and that's what I've been doing.

I'm working with the cards that I'm given.

Trying my best with what I've got.

I've come really far, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

>> Every person in their life deals with some sort of obstacle, whether it's big or small or It comes at various cycles in our life.

And I personally have had a handful of heavy and hard ones to kinda overcome.

Sometimes you just have to remind yourself of that, of where you were before and where you are at now.

And how dark that can get and how dark it was.

Everyday is a battle but I have to choose to press on.

[MUSIC] >> Growing up, it was not easy to get into college.

Growing up, I knew that I wanted to get into college, but I had a lot of things that were put in my way.

I didn't know if I was gonna be able to get to college.

I knew that I was gonna fight for it.

I am somebody who just keeps trying.

I think that's what beating the odds means, you just keep trying.

No matter what life throws at you, you just get back up and you beat the odds.

That's what you do, you beat the odds.

[MUSIC] >> My god, guys!

>> This is real life, this is happening!

>> [LAUGH] >> I'm so excited.

So this summer, we're gonna be going across the nation.

>> Talking to people that have gone through hardships and obstacles.

>> And went on to do incredible things in their community, but also in their own life.

>> You have someone like me who's from suburbs of Wisconsin, and Ikie who's from West Virginia, and Stephanie who's from New York.

>> For being such different people and coming from such different places, at our core, we're all going through similar situations in life.

We really do get each other.

>> We'll be with each other in a big green RV for about four weeks.

>> We're gonna be going across the country, from sea to shining sea.

>> I think I'll be a different person by the end of it, I really do.

>> You bring anything fun, Ikie?

>> An electric toothbrush.

>> [LAUGH] This is Monica, she goes with me everywhere.

[LAUGH] She's ready to do a road trip across the country.

>> I'm Esther O'Brien, I'm 19 years old.

I've been born and raised in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

[MUSIC] I have 20 siblings.

Naomi, Sarah, Danny, Johnny.

>> Hello, camera.

>> Geo, David, Elizabeth, Adam, TJ, Stephanie, Anna, Elijah, Jose, Mikey, >> Ow!

>> [LAUGH] >> Malachi, Ali, Alissa, Karen, and Kevin.

There we go.

I think that's 20.

I hope it is [LAUGH].

So I'm actually adopted.

My biological parents, they were both drug addicts, drug dealers, alcoholics.

And so with that, from the age of new born until about eight years old, I dealt with a lot of just physical abuse and sexual abuse, and emotional abuse by both my mom and my biological father, and then various men that would just come in and out of the picture.

With that, there comes a lot of trauma.

[MUSIC] I was with my biological brother, David, who's now adopted with me in this home.

From the moment we walked in the house, I definitely felt like I was a part of the family.

We just kinda clicked with him, mom and dad especially.

Because I think the definition of family is no longer about blood relative.

I think it's just based on who's willing to show you unconditional love, and who's willing to bring you in at your worst.

And so this is the best place I can be and I'm loving it, [LAUGH] I'm loving it.

[MUSIC] But because we had missed so much school at the beginning years of our lives, I didn't know how to read at all.

That was one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome.

So it was a long crazy ride but look at it, I mean, I did it so [LAUGH].

I graduated.

I had the whole ceremony and everything.

It was awesome.

It feels great to be done.

And so now am to be a freshman in college next year.

And everyday is kinda of a battle, but am walking through it.

And I'm on this trip to kinda get words of advice as I continue on to a new big chapter of my life.

I'm just here to learn, and absorb everything.

[MUSIC] >> Woohoo.

Oh God.

[LAUGH] We're on the RV.

It's just wild.

I don't know.

I'm good with living there.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

My house was always kinda small, so [LAUGH] not a lot a lot difference.

My name's Ikie Brooks.

We're actually at my grandma's old house.

This is where I grew up, right really in the heart of West Virginia, where all the coal is in the country.

My mom and dad were super young when they got pregnant with me.

My mom was 16 years old.

She quit school.

Looking back on it, they were just, they weren't ready.

They were in a abusive relationship, addicted to prescription pills.

And so it was like a slow progression of the becoming super dependent.

My dad, he wasn't around a lot when I was little and he was always in jail.

Mom, she was arrested on my 15th birthday.

She had tried to rob a convenience store.

And she was completely out of her mind when she'd done it.

That was a rough birthday.

I have walked into my house and I've seen someone overdose.

When you're dealing with that, there's a constant fear that you might walk in and you might see them dead.

Having that fear, whenever you're a kid and being the adult, making sure that the stove was turned off, making sure that they don't fall asleep with a cigarette in their hand.

It's like being a parent.

You're not raising a kid, you're dealing with an adult that has an addiction problem.

You don't get any relief.

[MUSIC] This is all the family and stuff.

They try and get plots close together, but dad's the third one.

Dad, he ended up passing away.

From a drug overdose, yeah.

[MUSIC] And so there was kinda like that period where I didn't really have anybody, but I'd still like try to go high school and make sure I was doing everything that I could so that I could get into college cuz I knew that that was kinda my way out.

So I worked really, really hard in high school so that I could get scholarships in things to get me to university.

Because I wanted college more than anything in my life.

And I got it, and it's the best decision I've ever made.

I am so excited to just travel.

Growing up poor, you don't think that you're gonna hop on a bus and just get to go into interview The best of America, that doesn't happen every day.

This opportunity means so much to me.

I'm not only getting to go across the country, I'm getting the chance to find myself in the process.

I want to be able to take anything, any advice, any words of wisdom and especially the inspiration that these people give me.

And I want to be able to take that back to West Virginia.

[MUSIC] To know that I'm so close to my apartment right now is so strange.

I love New York, I mean it's a hate love relationship, to be honest.

My name is Estephanie Cardenas I grew up in the Bronx, New York.

>> [FOREIGN] >> My mom came from the Dominican Republic when she was about my age.

She didn't finish high school.

This is her on the job, she's a home attendant.

And this job is so difficult, like 24 hour shifts overnight.

Lifting these people up physically, emotionally, it takes a toll on her.

So that's why I get emotional.

She's done this like forever and she's worked so hard, I feel like she deserves so much more.

It kind of instilled me with a, I have to make it up to her.

But, freshman year of high school was just no good for me, and that was the time in my life where I slipped.

I didn't know what else to do other than adapt to my environment, so that's what I did.

And I started hanging around the same people that I wanted to avoid.

And I started doing the things they were doing, and talking like them, and doing the same drugs.

And my mom was scared.

I don't know what I know now, I wasn't able to say no.

I don't want to hang out with you because this, this and that.

To me it was just like, yeah, someone let me in, let's go.

And I was scared too, so I wanted someone to show me the ropes of how to survive in this environment, in a way.

But, that's when I finally got an opportunity to express myself.

Thank God, because of Urban Artbeat, an organization, they get kids out of the streets.

When I finally got the chance to get up and perform and express myself, it changed my life.

And, yeah, I started auditioning for plays.

I started helping out in the theater department.

And I decided, okay, I'm gonna do this.

And I decided to go to Pace.

Where I'm at right now in terms of college is kind of difficult.

I'm at Pace, well I went to Pace this year.

And I loved it, but, I'm getting emotional, but I have to let it go.

Because it's not working for me, financially, and just, yeah, financially, that's it.

I don't wanna burden myself and my mom with that debt.

I'm just trying to stay positive, yeah.

You know, I'm blessed that these are my problems.

But they're still my problems.

[MUSIC] >> We are having our first interview with Elaine Del Valle and she is awesome, I'm so excited.

She is a writer, an actress, producer, director, casting director.

She's someone who I strive to be like.

>> I had a sixth grade gym teacher that put together a play.

He just got the play and made copies of it and said, we're gonna do Grease.

And I became Sandy in Grease.

>> That's crazy.

Greace was my first play, and I played Sandy too.

That's where I got my bug.

[MUSIC] >> So I'm from Brownsville, Brooklyn.

We're known as the biggest, the baddest, the toughest.

And that's how I felt growing up, like, yeah that's right, I'm from Brownsville.

The biggest, the baddest, the toughest.

Really just being so out of sorts with who I should be.

I was robbed at eight years old with my mother, at gunpoint.

There was an attempted rape on me when I was 12.

I was a part of a gang initiation because I was just targeted and beaten to a pulp.

And when I was about 11, I came to understand that my father was a heroin addict.

My play starts off with Wikipedia's definition of Brownsville, and it says really bad stuff.

Like most men in Brownsville will be arrested.

Most people will not graduate from high school.

And at the end of that definition, it's like dot, dot, dot, but I was Brownsville bred and I will not be defined.

And so, that get's me [LAUGH].

>> This is very similar to what I've been through, what I'm going through growing up in the Bronx.

How did you get to where are now from that?

>> So, as I said, in Brownsville, they don't have young actress programs.

You're not made to believe this could happen to you.

In that environment, we're not made to feel like we can accomplish much.

So, I took acting courses in the community college, and I said to my teacher, I'm just working on something, I'm just gonna put it on its feet.

And when I was done with the first scene, what became Brownsville Bred ultimately.

My teacher said to me, you must keep writing this.

I was like, my gosh, this is really good, I guess.

And then I remember every part of my body was shaking, because I was so nervous.

Cuz I was afraid to put my story out there.

I was afraid of being judged.

I was afraid of people knowing the things that really I was so ashamed of.

>> But when did you and how did you decide that that stuff no longer defined who you were?

>> When I first put Brownsville Bred on its feet for more people than just my classroom, it was really strange.

But it really taught me a lot about being able to speak of my truth.

In a way that was able to empower me and not make me into a victim.

I didn't have to be stuck there, this didn't have to be my life.

I don't have to be this statistic that doesn't finish this, and is on welfare.

Teen pregnancy and, I don't have to let it get to me.

Writing that play, empowered me, beyond words.

>> That's powerful.

>> Well my show grew exponentially.

Before long, it became the most successful theater run in the history of the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe.

[MUSIC] Don't jump over and look by the things that have hurt you in your life.

Stand on your obstacle, because if you got through that, you get through anything.

[MUSIC] Every moment can be the beginning of greatness.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you for choosing me, it's such an honor.

I wish you a lot of luck, you can do anything you want to do.

>> Thank you.

>> You really can.

[MUSIC] Wooo.

>> Estephanie, I'm not just saying this, like, I literally.

Whenever she looked at you, like I saw her eyes well up.

I'm not kidding.

She sees something in you.

>> I love her.

[MUSIC] >> She had to embrace her truth to not be a victim of it.

And sharing it helped her accept herself.

>> Standing on your own struggles, using your story.

Because sometimes that's all you have.

Your story is like your arsenal.

Sometimes you have to use what you have, and if your story is all you have, then use it.

>> I get a level of excitement almost, when I hear that someone else has gone through a similar situation as me.

I wanna come up to them and be like, I know what you mean.

I don't know, I kinda felt that with her at the beginning.

And then as soon as- >> She realized.

>> Yeah, as soon as we told our story.

I could see that she was like, my goodness, I'm inspired by you guys.

And that's powerful, cuz a lot of times you feel alone in that type of stuff.

She was like the boost of energy that I needed.

[MUSIC] >> I think it's really special starting off the trip in New York for me.

And the fact that the people we're interviewing are just a few more miles away from me, a train ride away from me.

It's crazy to know that.

>> I remember growing up in a place that was violent, and dangerous, and I knew that at a very early age.

I'm 65, I was just telling a group of folks there, all of my friends are dead.

None of them survived.

You know, you are relatively young at 65, in lots of places.

But not in these places.

Right?

There not.

Some things about these places, we all learn to smoke, we all learn to drink, we all smoking weed before we were 14, 15 years old.

Everybody thought, drinking was getting drunk.

You had to fight that was just, you're growing up, you had to learn how to fight.

That was just part of growing up.

You learned all of these behaviors as kids.

And all of that stuff kills you.

[MUSIC] >> How did you cope living in this environment?

What did you learn?

How did you adapt?

And how did you get out of it?

>> The way I started accepting that I had to change myself.

And there was new gangs that had come out.

A bunch of kids.

They were like 14, and 15, and I'm 19.

I've grown up in the toughest part of the Bronx.

I know how to fight.

I think I'm a tough guy.

But they're like these 25 kids.

They're kids, and they're controlling everything.

My mom says, look.

When you go to the store, don't go up 183rd street, cuz that's where those gang kids hang out.

So the first time I went home I was going around the corner.

I said to myself, this is crazy.

I can't live like this.

So I legally bought me a gun.

Solved that problem.

Now I come back home, have my gun.

Put it in my pocket.

But that gun began to talk to me.

It started saying, you're in America, why do you have to walk up another side of the street, why don't you walk up the side you wanna, the store's on that side, walk up.

So now I'm walking past the kids.

And in the Bronx, you don't look people in the eye.

So, I'm walking past the kids, but I'm not looking at them.

That comes with like, you can look at anybody you want.

So now I'm looking at those kids, the kids see me, I'm looking at them, they looking at me.

Who this guy think he is, bopping through our neighborhood?

I realized that I was gonna end up shooting those kids.

Cuz they were gonna attack me, and I was gonna shoot them, and I didn't really wanna kill anybody.

And I took that gun to the dump and throw it away.

And I realize I had to deal with this thing another way.

>> You've talked about getting out and I relate to that so much, because I grow up in and our community really deals with a lot of prescription pills and a lot of opioid.

And both of my parents were addicts all throughout my life.

But I have this desire, and this need to go back and to change because that's where I come from.

That's my home.

And I see that you've done that.

You've went back and you took all that passion, and everything that you went through growing up.

What made you decide that, yeah I may not fit in, but I'm still wanna go back and still gonna work at it.

>> I really wanted to go back, like you.

I really wanted to go back to my community and make a difference.

I wanted to prove that there were answers.

An you could go in and save those folks that people had just written off.

They said all these terrible things about them.

They can't do, they had names for them and all that stuff.

I wanted to eliminate all that stuff, and by the way people know about it now.

Because like I told you, I've been here 34 years.

The first ten years, I was here no one knew anything about anything.

I was working hard.

Just trying to figure out a way to save my kids and my community.

I took all of that stuff that happened and tried to use it for something good, and when I say I wouldn't be who I am and where I am had that stuff not happened, I really mean that.

Your life may make sense to you right now, what you're going through, what the experience that you've had.

But I've learned, I believe this deeply, if you're a righteous person, if you do the right thing, if you're really using your gifts for good and not for evil, I believe that.

These experiences you're having, that they'll become clear why that's important in making you who you wanna be.

But at some point in your life, you'll be like that's why.

As long as you're open for the expereince.

[MUSIC] >> Nature, something I don't see a lot of in city life in New York.

>> She's getting that leg.

>> Spraying bug spray on like a maniac [LAUGH], but I feel like stepping out of New York was what I needed.

The road trip has finally started for me.

[MUSIC] >> We're heading to DC, where we get to sit with about 25 to 30 other students, and just ask questions about college.

>> In a room with the one and only, Michelle Obama.

So, [LAUGH].

>> Yeah, you know, we're gonna be BFF's pretty soon, it's gonna be amazing.

She lived there.

There's so many things she's still invested in, even after leaving the White House.

I think it's so inspiring.

[APPLAUSE] [APPLAUSE] >> I would just like to ask you, what do you think would be the best things to do, transitioning to the real world?

What can we do in our last year?

>> Here is advice that you can use, that you'll find useful not just now as you're leaving.

But throughout your life as you transition because now you're going to explore the real applicability of all this education.

And how do you do that?

For me, what I would always do when I was about to transition.

Whether it was from undergrad to law school, or law school to a job, or from one job to the next job.

As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I always tried to find people who were doing what I wanted to do.

And I would talk to them.

And I know you three in the back are doing it already.

You wanna talk a little bit about?

>> What we're doing is, you know.

These are already in college and just about to finish up.

But I'm going to be a freshman.

Right now for our summer, we're just going around the nation in RV of interviewing various people that have overcome adversity and obstacles in their life.

And now are kind of giving back to their community.

>> Never in a million years did I think I was gonna meet Michelle Obama.

>> Standing in a room with her contributing to a conversation about education with the First Lady of the United States.

>> We all know, kids back home in our neighborhoods, they are first year college students.

What can we do to help those kids that aren't getting these opportunities that we are?

>> You know, this is one of the reasons why I do this.

Because I remember being you, and not having any support or advice.

So make sure you're bringing people along with you every step of the way.

Everything I do, I'm always looking at who's coming with me.

I'm not looking like, I've made it, good luck.

I'm always thinking, man, if I can do it I know there's so many people back home who could be doing this, so let me help them.

I want you to do for somebody what I'm doing for you.

Because it doesn't take that much time, right?

So, even before you get into college, you could be helping other people.

But you don't have to get an RV and travel around the country.

>> [LAUGH] >> There are other ways, that's exemplary.

>> [LAUGH] >> Hearing it from the First Lady and hearing somebody at the very top struggled it makes your own struggles seem a little bit more doable.

>> It felt really real.

Actually, I feel like it put the stamp on me actually leaving and going to college.

>> And she broke it down.

She made it to where everything didn't seem so overwhelming.

But the college is overwhelming.

[MUSIC] Everything about Washington, DC just makes me feel at home.

I felt like it's where I should be in a sense.

And, even if it's just for a part of my journey.

I think that my journey is definitely gonna take me through Washington DC, it just, it was amazing.

>> But like that night was like one of the most difficult, it was really, really, really, really rough.

Because a lot of the things that I'm dealing with.

That I haven't actually dealt with yet.

[MUSIC] The people in West Virgina are amazing.

They're incredible, and they're loving, they will give you the shirts off their back if they see that you're in need.

But I think that one of the hardest things for me growing up here has been seeing a lot of the a lot of the closed mindedness.

This is so, it's hard to talk about because I've never talked about it.

You don't talk about.

I haven't told my friends.

I haven't told any of my family.

That I'm gay.

I'm sorry just, give me one second.

>> And yeah if now is not the time.

>> No, no it is, it is.

I never said on film before, I never said it out loud.

I told myself that I wasn't going to.

To come out to my family at all.

I knew in my head but I hadn't said it out loud.

And then, I got sent the link to Roadtrip Nation I got picked, and I was so scared.

I was happy, I was so happy.

But I was, I was terrified.

[MUSIC] I was like wow, God?

[LAUGH] If this is what I'm supposed to be doing, if this is like, if this is the trip that I'm supposed to take.

To find out who I am then you know.

I can give so much to West Virginia and I can be such a force of good for West Virginia.

And I don't want to people of West Virginia to just see that one aspect of me and not see anything else.

I think that after my family gets some time to think about everything.

They're gonna see that I'm still the same kid.

I'm still the same person that they knew 20 minutes before that conversation.

And, I'm not that different than they think.

And I just wanna make everybody proud.

[LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> Just got a text you guys might wanna see.

[MUSIC] >> Aah!

[LAUGH] >> Sweet how did you get these pictures?

>> So good.

That's good.

That makes me feel a lot better.

[LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> We're finally heading down south and I'm so excited about it, just to look outside the window and really take it all in.

[MUSIC] >> Our next stop is Georgia.

We are gonna be talking to Ashley Rhodes-Courter.

Who I am excited about, because she has been through the foster care system herself.

I just want to ask her, what keeps her going.

Because I know my experience, I have a lot of anger, a lot of frustration.

And a lot of bitterness inside.

And I didn't know how to necessarily take it out.

Once I got adopted, at the beginning of the sixth grade.

I kind of just threw everything that I had dealt with, I kinda just closed the door and thought it was all fine.

One of my first habits that I developed was self harm.

And junior year, I tried to kill myself.

I just crashed and burned.

And ended up being hospitalized for it.

[MUSIC] I felt like I was inadequate, and I wasn't important.

And how can this random family that I don't know very well love me more than the person that birthed me.

[MUSIC] >> My adoption day, was not.

This rainbows and sunshine, happy, warm occasion.

It was terrifying for me, I had 14 different foster homes.

I had been hurt so much in the past, I had been so disappointed.

These were people who had problems with drugs, alcohol, violence, pedophelia.

Most of my foster brothers and sisters have become teen parents.

They've been in abusive relationships, they've been homeless, they've overdosed on drugs, they've been incarcerated many times over.

Everyone expected me to be one of the traditional statistics.

[MUSIC] In one particular home I was in there were 16 kids sharing two bedrooms in a trailer.

And one bathroom, and we were beaten, starved, locked outside, it was horrific.

So when that home got investigated, they came and they went to interview all the kids.

And I was the only one that told what was going on, because so many of the other kids we're so terrified.

Eventually the parents were arrested on over 42 counts of felony child abuse with torture, and that was huge.

So I got this little taste of like justice, and politics, and advocacy, and being a part of something that directly influences peoples lives.

That's the motivation that keep me from turning to drugs, or running away, or becoming part of that statistic.

And so I am now a social worker, and a mom, and my husband and I became foster parents.

And we've cared for over 25 foster kids, and I ultimately opened a nonprofit organization that provides direct services to children and families.

In fact I'm probably just going to be blasting your stories now to all of my kids.

Because you are going to be the reason that maybe some of these kids start realizing that they don't have to be their circumstances.

So I wanna thank you guys for what you're doing, it's just awesome.

>> Thank you.

>> Hooray [LAUGH].

>> That's so touching because there are days where it's hard for me to continue.

Cuz there are days where it's like my story is just a story, and it doesn't relate deeper than just myself.

>> I know, I'm choking up, too.

When people have experienced the kinds of adversity, and abuse, and struggles that so many of you have and that I have, those things don't go away.

I have things that I will struggle with for the rest of my life.

But I also have priorities and a focus and at least the knowledge to know that I can't always control how I feel, but I can always control what I do.

I was able to find good outlets and channel my frustrations into more positive ways that weren't going to get me arrested, were not gonna get me hurt, were not going to derail my overall master plan of, getting away from my circumstances.

So now what, what's the next step?

What do we do about it?

It's not enough to complain about something if you're not willing to be a part of the solution.

Because you're gonna feel stuck, you're gonna feel isolated, you're gonna feel alone, you're gonna have these triggers.

Don't dwell, do, figure out how to move forward.

[MUSIC] >> Just by hearing her talk, being able to stand out and say, this is what happened to me, was powerful because these scars will always be here.

I can either be ashamed and embarrassed by them, or I can just say, that this is who I am today, and this is the progress that I've made.

[MUSIC] Yeah, so we're getting from Atlanta to LA in the span of a week, and it's just hitting me right now how absolutely insane that is in the best way possible though.

We have these long stretches where we drive for nine or ten hours a day.

Listening to music, eating junk food, having a good time, having fun, we've just created a bond.

[MUSIC] >> My mom is something you'll call a holy roller, like go to church all the time, nothing but church, church, church, church.

But we lived in areas where I had to defend myself.

Ultimately I joined the gang at the age of 12, gang banging 6th, 7th, 8th grade, 9th grade.

I didn't know how to tell my mom, so initially I just ran away.

[MUSIC] So that summer was a very dark place.

Just because that was my first time sleeping on the streets, doing a lot of crime, trying to make money, trying to get my rank up in the gang.

And so basically what end up happening, I found out that a rival gang broke into our house and burned our house down.

What changes my life is I got to school, the teachers started showing love.

The teachers started giving me support, here Mr. Love here you go a $100.

My biology teacher said you're staying with me this weekend, I got an extra room in my house and that's gonna be your room.

And the school transformed from a place that I just went to get my grades to a place of support, a place of healing, it was kind of like my safe haven.

So going into my 11th grade year, I had a mentor, I had a system of support.

And my mentor was like, maybe you should consider going to college, and so I did my first scholarship.

And it's all because now I'm starting to get people on my team, people to support me.

And so Llng story short, I graduated with honors, I had my 3.55, had my little cord.

I bust down crying, I'm boohooing, like I made it, Mama, we made it.

>> [LAUGH] >> Because many people don't get that opportunity.

And they hired me as a 9th grade biology teacher and it was crazy because like I brought this like hip hop flavor.

Like Urban, like y'all we still in this, I just graduated the high school five years ago like y'all.

I knew that area, I knew that community and like I was effective because I met students where they were.

I gave them somebody that can tell them how to solve chemical equations, but also, how do you survive outside of these walls?

>> So I right now am about to, I'm hoping to major with elementary education.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, and so what keeps you going, what keeps you feeling like that you are making a difference in the big picture, cuz teenagers are hard.

>> It's tough.

I kinda wanna know what that's like, cuz I'm sure there'll be days when I'm gonna face that.

>> I faced it this morning.

I'm not gonna lie, I was like, man we got this going on today and I got a meeting, after this I got another.

I think one is my family, my wife now, I think about my kids that keeps me going.

I think about other people's kids, I mean I think about my impact.

I think about dying a lot.

And I know that's weird to say but I think about dying and I think about, if today was my last day what would people have to say.

This is why my students so special.

Especially students that come from inner city, that come from the hood, that come from the slums, they come from nothing.

This is what's special about them.

And it's called the art of struggling.

Think about it, where you all come from and where i come from.

Like you are in this space where you're functioning just to make it to the next day.

And so, whatever you do is gonna be ten times harder than the next person.

But because of what you went through, you're ten times more capable.

In this person's.

>> I like that.

[MUSIC] >> And that makes us.

Iron sharpens iron.

When you go through stuff, you're able to absorb it because you went through it before [MUSIC] We in Arizona!

[MUSIC] Arizona is not what I was expecting at all.

But once we got to the Grand Canyon, wow.

[MUSIC] >> It blows my mind that this is still in the US.

Here we are on the other side of the US, but just 20 days ago we were looking at huge skyscrapers.

>> Yeah, totally different environment.

[MUSIC] >> I don't think that I've ever really understood the word grand until this.

[MUSIC] >> It was breathtaking.

And I just sat there feeling so small.

>> I don't know what it is like the magic of the Grand Canyon.

But when you're sitting there it's like okay now it's time to kinda put everything that we've been learning into the last leg of this trip.

It gave us the time to reflect.

[MUSIC] We had to shoot up to Long Beach because we got to interview with the Mayor of Long Beach, Robert Garcia.

And I have role models that are gay.

I have role models that are politicians.

But when those two things kind of come together and you get to see the harmony.

That's all I want to do.

>> I was born in Lima, Peru.

I came to the U.S. when I was five years old.

I have gone through the struggle with my family of waiting lines for hours and hours and hours of being cheated by immigration attorneys.

About being called names, but not having the same access to resources that a citizen would have.

You were very persistent and I think that we just were committed to getting an education.

And getting a college degree and it gave me a greater sense of responsibility.

It gave me a huge sense of love of country.

And love of this country and I knew then that I wanted to do more to give back so I ran for the city council.

On the council for one term and then I ran for mayor and that's how I got elected.

>> It's really good to kind of get to talk to somebody who's went through some of the things that you went through.

As far as becoming a citizen, the fact that you are an openly gay Mayor I'm actually gay and I haven't told any of my family back home.

I'm from West Virginia.

I actually wanna know if you could just speak a little bit about dealing with that part of it.

Because I know it can be nasty and I know that it can be brutal.

And that's just almost something that people will use against you.

>> Right, well it was hard to first.

Here sometimes you hear some negative comments from people.

But I find almost every single person that I talked to, that had gone to the process.

They feel so much better after it's done.

And it's hard to rip the bandaid off sometimes.

I'm not a big believer in pushing people to come out faster than when they're ready.

But the more people that know, the more people that support you.

And I think that's almost always true anywhere in the country.

Obviously there's not many gay mayors in the country.

There's a handful of us, but we all support each other and I don't think it matters.

At the end of the day, the people want their potholes fixed.

And they want a cop to come when you call 911.

Me being gay has no effect on the police officers and the firefighters and whether streets are fixed.

There's no gay way to fix a street or a straight way to fix a street.

>> [LAUGH] >> There's really no way to do that right?

>> Right.

>> He's living the way that I want to be able to live my life and be able to help people in a really open manner.

Be who he is, and still be able to give back to his community.

Making a difference in people's lives.

Making a difference in the community that you love so much.

That's all I wanna do.

You being gay has no effect on your ability to help people and make a difference in the world.

Part of the great thing about coming out.

Is you now have people who can support you.

You have a population of people who are going to have your back and get what you're going through.

And so if you hide that, no one knows that they can help you.

No one knows that they can be there for you.

But by coming out and by talking about it.

You're now opening yourself up to so many amazing people.

That can come into your life and just make it better.

This is amazing and I.

>> It is amazing.

>> I want like, I don't know I want everybody to be able to get this perspective.

>> It's our duty to pass it on now.

I think back to some of the kids that I was in treatment with.

And how just there was not even a door for them to open to a new perspective.

>> We have an obligation- >> For sure.

>> Now to start opening doors for other people.

>> 100% >> Michelle Obama was like, pull them forward.

They are like.

Reach a hand back, and really like bring somebody forward.

Be that person that changed your life.

>> Yeah.

Before I was sad that this is ending.

But now I'm excited.

I'm excited for it to be over.

Because I'm ready to go into my new community of college and everything.

And just spread this stuff, like wildfire.

>> Ugh.

>> This is the last day.

We leave tomorrow.

And that's it.

>> And so we ended up interviewing Scout Basset who would end up being one of my all time favorite interviews.

She's a paralympian and her story its also about being adopted.

>> It's nice to meet you.

>> Thank you.

>> Hello, I'm Estephanie.

>> Hi, nice to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you.

>> I'm Ikie >> So I grew up in Nanjing, China.

I was born there.

And when I was a baby, I lost my right leg on a fire that happened.

And shortly after that, I was just abandoned on the street.

And later found at a year and a half old.

And taken to the orphanage.

And just went through some really traumatic experiences when I was in that orphanage.

With starvation and child labor and physical abuse.

I didn't know it was wrong.

I didn't know it was any different because you're in an environment where that's all you know.

[MUSIC] Fortunately for me I was adopted when I was seven years old.

And came here to the States and I weighed all of 22 pounds at seven.

I grew up in a small town in Northern Michigan, primarily Caucasian.

As a result I had just a lot of experiences where I was very marginalized, and Sort of the outcast, and I grew up thinking that I was lesser than because that was always the treatment that I had received.

I decided I wanted to be involved in sports, and I was not included, I was not accepted.

The day that I ran when I was 14 years old, I remember it being one of the most traumatizing days of my whole life.

And the reason that was, is because I had this running prosthetic that had this blade that looked different.

And I remember thinking that thing was fugly, like that was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen in my whole life.

>> [LAUGH] >> There's no way I was gonna put that on, right?

>> [LAUGH] >> Well, when you run, there's no way you can hide your prosthetic.

That was the first time that I was gonna have to be out.

Like, I was gonna have to show people that this is who I am, that I couldn't hide that I was an amputee.

And I got out there and I realized that, I had nothing to be afraid of.

You know, all the things that I thought I was so fearful of, like what would people think of me, seeing me like this?

And I got out there and I started running and I realized, I love to do this.

This is so liberating, this is so freeing, because here I am out and this is who I am.

I had always felt such shame of where I had come from, and my background, and of being an amputee.

And that I thought as a woman that I couldn't be strong, or beautiful, or all the things that I thought other girls my age were.

I didn't think I was and then in that moment I realized, my gosh, I'm just as powerful, I'm just as strong, I'm just as beautiful as anybody else.

The Paralympics for me has been life changing, competing on the highest level of sport and realizing that even though I'm an athlete that has a disability, I can have such influence and power.

If anything, I love that my life path has been so different, and it's been so unusual.

And the road that it's taken me to get to where I am has been so hard.

But those trials are in actuality paving the way to greatness.

When you surrender, when you quit, you give someone else or something else power over you.

I'm never going to give someone or something else, that kind of power over me.

The only person that's gonna have power over me is me.

And that whole journey, first of all, is a life long journey.

But it starts with you and it starts within, just embrace that journey.

[MUSIC] >> Man, our very last day on this trip, which is crazy to think about.

I have about a week and a half and them I'm packing up and I'm saying goodbye and I'm going away for college.

I've learned that I don't need to feel like I'm odd or I'm like the weird one out, because in the end this is what makes me me.

Faith, hope, love, Esther O'Brien.

>> I'm going back home and I'm a little uncertain of what's to come, and I'm prepared for whatever obstacles may come.

Because the advice that I've gotten, the stories that I've heard, are with me forever now.

Trust your path, the loops, turns, detours and all, signed Estephanie Cardenas.

>> Going back home, I'm starting school on the 20th.

But I've also got to continue with my advocacy, really, really in depth with my community.

I need to start going out and talking to people in ways that are going to make me uncomfortable, and I have to be able to understand and listen.

But I just, I feel like I have to now, I really do feel like I have to.

[MUSIC] It isn't enough in life to just change policies, you have to change people's minds.

And then I put PS, the only way to change their minds is to change their hearts.

It's never going to be easy, things in life that are worthwhile are never easy.

>> It's not gonna just end after this trip.

And how we're still going to overcome adversity and we're still gonna have to fight off a lot of these demons that we deal with.

>> Beating the odds is about attitude.

>> Beating the odds is so much more than just overcoming hardships, it's about continuing, it's about pushing forward.

[MUSIC] First, just imagine the camera is all of the kids that are in it right now, like whatever that is.

>> Man, this is, okay.

[MUSIC] >> This is to anybody, and to any kid, that has ever felt like they don't belong, or felt like the situation or environment that they come from defines them.

>> Know that you're not alone.

>> Know that you are worthy, and you are worth it.

>> And it's not gonna be the end of the world, even though it may feel like that every day.

>> If you can get through it, and because you get through it, you're going to be more adaptable and you're going to able to make more change than you can imagine.

>> Don't be afraid to be bold, really ask yourself who am I, who do I want to be, what do I have to do to get there, how can I start right now?

>> And no matter what anyone says, you are the best that this world has to offer.

You're the reason why I'm going to fight, you matter.

You matter more than you will ever know.

[MUSIC] >> To learn more about how to get involved or to watch interviews from the road, visit roadtripnation.com.