Travel & Quest Case Studies Needed (“Are You Interesting? Do You Have a Great Story?”)

Above photo from Tom Allen’s quest story

Hey everyone! For the past few months, we’ve been running a series of traveler and “quester” profiles, usually each Tuesday and Thursday.

Judging from your feedback and social sharing, here are several of your early favorites:

• “Goodbye, Comfort Zone”: On the Road with Marvin and Josephine Abisia
• “Life is About Human Connection”: On the Road with Cindy Cihuelo
• Turning Fear into Curiosity: On the Road with Audrey Scott and Dan Noll
• Travel Hacking Graduate Earns 2.5 Million Miles: On the Road with Hao Tran
• “Don’t Have Dreams, Have Things You Do”: Matt Krause’s Long Walk Across Turkey

We have a bunch more of these in the queue, and I also want to open it up a bit wider for 2015 submissions. One of my major goals with the blog redesign from this summer was to shine a spotlight on as many people as possible who are traveling, forging an unconventional path in the world of work, pursuing a quest, or otherwise living differently—you know, pretty much the same goals as AONC in general.

In 2015 we’ll be expanding this series, and I’d love to get more of you in the mix.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Great stories from interesting people (are you interesting? do you have a great story?)
• Real, specific lessons that other people can apply
• Fewer (or even better, none at all) platitudes or generic lessons (we don’t want to hear “follow your dreams” or “travel helps you find yourself” — our readers already believe these things)
• Awesome, high-res photos to accompany the features

And here are the initial intake forms:

• “On the Road” Traveler or Travel Hacking Case Study
• Quest Case Study
• Reader Stories

Note: The last category, Reader Stories, is for short features that are unique and compelling but don’t really fit the other two categories. For these, we aren’t looking for your life history—we want to hone in on something specific and special.

A post from two readers caught up in the Ukraine’s political situation while traveling is a good example, as is this unconventional destination wedding.

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Thanks for reading AONC. 2015 is going to be a great year!

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