“I want to become a man that pursues virtue and character and color and romance. It feels like the people in our lives who seem to have done that are the ones we love most.”

In August 2013, Jedidiah Jenkins quit the job he loved to bike from Oregon to Patagonia, at the southern end of South America. He spent 16 months traveling around 7,000 miles, relying on the advice of those he met along the way. Although his journey has ended, it seems as if his real story has only begun.

When Jenkins was 27, he read a quote by Benjamin Franklin on someone’s fridge: "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” As the third decade of his life drew closer, Jenkins realized the vibrant seasons had begun to fade into a calm pattern and these words inspired him to change the trajectory of his life when he turned 30. Specifically, he quit his position as the Director of Idea Development and Ideology at Invisible Children Inc., a charity committed to exposing the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader Joseph Kony’s use of child soldiers, and began making plans for a massive trip and a career in writing. Once he discovered the Pan – American Highway and the cyclists who travel it, he immediately decided it was what he wanted to do.

However, many of Jenkins’ friends were not surprised by his decision. While his father was disgruntled with America’s role in the Vietnam War yet surprised at his ignorance of the country, Jenkins began his cross-country expedition in 1973. Over the next two years, he walked from New York to New Orleans, where he met his wife. Together they made the trip to the coast of Oregon and wrote about their adventure for National Geographic’s cover story in 1979. Their son decided to follow in their footsteps by beginning his excursion where they left off, in Oregon.

On the other hand, Jenkins maintains that he is not discontent with any aspect of his life. He’s more afraid of the years passing by in routine – by blinking and realizing he’s 85 years old and left with regrets from risks not yet taken. He resolves to hold off on some responsibilities of adulthood for now, such as a mortgage, and focus on the priorities people often overlook – like fascination with and appreciation for the wonders of the world. These days, in between traveling, he’s busy putting together a book of his journey, which will publish either in late 2015 or in 2016.

While some may insist Jenkins is the type of millennial who wishes to forgo adulthood for as long as possible, he upholds that his choice to pursue his vision, at the expense of ease and sureness, as a way to encourage others to strive for more – fulfillment, consciousness, creativity, passion – in life is a sign of his maturity. I agree. After all, what better way to “turn your 100 years on this planet into a thousand” than to wander, question, marvel at, and experience all there is to know and see firsthand?