The idea:

This couple, drinking at the Herbstdult beer festival in Regensberg Germany, are millennials-- part of the generation born between 1980 and 2000.

This woman, weaving a basket in Kontum, Vietnam, is a millennial, too.

This campaign will provide partial funding for my research exploring the lives of so-called “millennials” (those born 1980-2000) across Eurasia, via an overland trip from Helsinki to Beijing on the Transmongolian Railroad. After almost a decade exploring the world (over 40 countries!) and straying from the conventional professional path, I feel I have some interesting insights to share. Preparing to close this chapter of my life and begin a career in journalism, it occurred to me that this might be a good time to reflect on my experiences off the beaten path and the lessons to be learned from them.

I studied anthropology at university, and here is where my training kicked in. I wondered how my own perspective might compare with those of peers from other cultures... and an idea for a book was born: a hybrid travelogue-memoir-cultural-investigation mixing my own experiences as a millennial with stories of those I meet along the way. On a literary level, a train journey provides a great narrative device in which to mix reflections and insights with travelogue-style observations and adventure. It offers a concrete beginning and ending point, narrative momentum, and a built-in geographic transition ripe with parallels to the process of growing up. One a practical level, researching Across will call upon my strengths: finding and facilitating adventure in foreign places, making new friends from different cultures, seeking out and recording their stories, and distilling it all into compelling, insightful prose.

I hope that this book will help do what trend pieces from countless media have not: ask questions about the borders of the "millennial" experience in terms of geography, culture, and class; shine a light on the diversity of the twenty-something experience world-wide; and ask what this generation, poised to inherit the world, can learn from one another and do to understand each other better.

The money:

This idea is a little more than a year old, and I've spent the last 12 months saving for it. I had hoped to crowdfund just 25% of the project, but expenses, particularly visa processing fees, are more than I anticipated. Since self-funding is impossible, I am hoping to raise 40% of my research budget. I will cover the remaining 60%, as well as a plane ticket home from Beijing. Funding for the time needed to write the draft itself will come from my own savings and from grants I search out after I arrive home. The following is a rough budget:

Dates: Approximately June 10-August 1

• Visa processing: $200 processing fees + $440 consular fees + $70 dollars postage: $710
• Airplane ticket from Madrid to Tampere, Finland: $180
• Ferry ticket, Helsinki to Saint Petersburg: $60
• Trans-Siberian Train Ticket: $1000
• Mongolian Train Ticket: $200
• Mongolia-China Train Ticket: $175
• Food, at approximately $30/day for 51 days: $1530
• Accommodations at $20/night for 30 nights (with hope of couchsurfing or sleeping on the train along the way): $600
• Travel/health insurance: $170
• Gifts for couchsurfing hosts, helpers, interview sources, and general palm-greasing (necessary for a foreign researcher working in these cultures): $250

Total: $4875

40% + IndieGoGo cut +various processing fees = $2100

Please note: If the situation between the US and Russia deteriorates and I am denied a visa, I will be in direct touch with all contributors regarding return of funds.

Still not convinced? Read a few of my essays/clips. This is the kind of writing you will be supporting with a contribution.

• "True Manhood By Dodging Turnips," an account of a unique Extremaduran festival published this month in the "Spain Scoop." http://bit.ly/1m3wcxg
• "On Horcruxes and Homes," a meditation on the meaning of home to a traveler, from my personal blog. bit.ly/1m3wFPT
• "My Fifth Wesleyan Reunion--in Madrid," on recreating a college reunion abroad, published October 2013 in "Wesleyan Magazine" http://bit.ly/1lEbq4j
• "Being Chinese in Charlestown, Part 3," the last installment of a three-part feature on the Chinese community in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, published Fall 2011 in the "Sampan" newspaper. http://bit.ly/1oRqBNH

Being Realistic

Although I would be humbled and thrilled if this project were to be fully funded, the trip will happen regardless via loans. I am committed to this project and really excited to see it out in the world. Any donation, in any amount, is greatly appreciated! As you'll see, many of my perks involve taking my contributors along with me virtually on the trip. I hope to share this experience with many of you!

Still, these are hard times and I know not everyone will want to or be able to contribute financially. Regardless of your decision, I value your feedback-- please share this project widely and feel free to contact me about friends in the countries where I will travel who might want to speak with me or ideas you have for how to make this book better.