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Daniel LaFata is a free spirit travel blogger born and raised in a small farm town
in northwestern Pennsylvania. While attending Clarion University, he discovered his
love for writing and adventure. Daniel plans to live his life on the road and never
have a permanent home. (From thestreetsaremine.com)
The summer after his freshman year at Clarion University, Daniel LaFata ('13) wanted
to arrange a gathering for his group of friends in Erie, where he lived.
"Nobody's schedule was lining up, so I took a long weekend and stayed at one friend's house one night, another friend's the next night," he said. "I liked the feeling of waking up and going to a new city."
When he returned to Clarion in the fall, LaFata continued to explore new places through university organizations. He traveled to New York City with Psychology Club, Miami with American Marketing Association, Washington, D.C., with a feminist group, New Orleans with Political Economics Club. He capped off his senior year with a trip to Boston with International Club.
Bike and Build
With his bachelor's degree in liberal studies in hand, LaFata had one more trip to take before he settled into the 9 to 5 routine. He signed up for a cross-country excursion with Bike and Build, a group that "engages young adults in service-oriented cycling trips to raise money and awareness for the affordable housing cause," according to bikeandbuild.org.
"I read about (Bike and Build) freshman year; a girl from Erie did it. I cut out the article and came across it every once in a while," LaFata said. "Going into my senior year, I thought there would be no better time to go than the summer after graduation."
Riders are asked to raise $4,500 to help with Bike and Build's mission of providing affordable housing. LaFata wrote letters to "every person I ever met," and he stood in front of Walmart with a can and a poster. He reached his goal a month before the trip.
The 27 bicyclists started their 4,000-mile trip in Portland, Maine, riding 80 to 100
miles a day.
"We'd bike to a town, the next day we'd build all day, usually with Habitat for Humanity,
then we'd wake up and bike another 100 miles," LaFata said. "On build days, we literally
experienced every step of building a house – sometimes clearing the lot, other times
pouring cement, putting up walls, putting a roof on."
"(The trip) took 77 days. We ended in Santa Barbara, Calif."
More to see
After Bike and Build, LaFata stayed in Chicago with a girl he met on the trip. He was planning to move there, but they broke up. For the next two months he stayed with friends in Philadelphia. Then, his best friend from college moved to Austin, Texas.
It was February in Pennsylvania, and LaFata was complaining to the friend about the cold.
"It's 75 degrees here," the friend told him. LaFata was off to Austin. "I was a bartender and I worked in a coffee shop, but my 'big boy' job was at AT&T." LaFata said. "My plan was to live cheap and save money for two years, then travel the world. I only made it six months, but I had enough saved to do some traveling."
He had read about and had friends who had hiked the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain, and that became his first journey into a life of travel.
His plane landed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in April 2015.
"I figured I'll start in Denmark and figure out how to get to Spain to walk this trail," he said. "I used 'couch surfing,' which is pretty much travelers helping travelers. There's no exchange of money – it's pretty much the essence of human kindness."
He admits he was nervous at the initial thought of staying with strangers.
"I was having a minor freakout before the first couch surf, but it was one of the nicest girls I've ever met. She said, 'I just bought groceries. I can cook you dinner,'" he said. "It was amazing. It was like that everywhere I went."
LaFata explored for a month before he arrived in Spain. He started to walk the 500-mile trail April 22.
"My plan was to walk all of it. I ended up walking about 400 miles," LaFata said. "The whole point was the walk itself. I felt like I'd grown a ton spiritually and mentally." He concluded his journey by volunteering at the hostel there before returning to the United States June 1 ... briefly.
Viva Italia!
"I grew up with a fairly rich Sicilian culture, listening to my grandparents talk Sicilian to each other. It's always been a dream to go there," he said.
LaFata's grandfather was born in Sicily, which makes him eligible for Italian citizenship.
"As long as you can link one blood relative back, you're eligible," he said.
He lined up a job teaching English in an Italian school and jetted back to Europe in September to begin his work there.
"It's only three months. It's demonstrating proper dialect for middle school students. It gives me the opportunity to get my feet wet and see if I like it. If I do, it's easy to find a full-time teaching job," LaFata said.
In Italy, LaFata is seeing and doing all that he can. He has started the process toward citizenship, which will allow him to live anywhere in Europe. He's learning to speak Italian. He tried scuba diving. He's been to Milan and Rome, toured the Sistine Chapel and visited the Coliseum.
He keeps a video record of his travels, which he edits and narrates before posting them on YouTube, labeled with the event and the numbered day of his life. He also maintains a blog which also features videos of his travels at www.daniellafata.com.
It's the people
As LaFata travels, he sees spectacular sights, but the people he meets have made as much of an impression on him, maybe more.
"My most amazing experience was when I was couch surfing in Milan, Italy. I found one girl online, and she said I could stay with her. Typically couch surfers are people in their 20s. She lived in a really nice, upscale condo. Her dad was a lawyer and her mom was a fashion designer. They welcomed me in. The dad was from Sicily – I said I was, too. The joke was that if you're from Sicily, you're related – it's just an island.
"The second night I was there, their nephew was graduating from law school. They were going to a dinner celebration for him and invited me. I hopped in the car like one of the family – me and two daughters in the back, the mom and dad in the front. At dinner it was a long table of all Italians, yelling at each other, all speaking Italian. I couldn't be more immersed in the culture than having a family dinner."
LaFata said that nine times out of 10, if you talk to people, they'll help you out.
"We're communal creatures. We've lived in communities or tribes since the caveman days. It's instinctive to help each other out."
Philosophy
"Open yourself up and let the universe do its thing. It's going to help you out, guide you to where you need to go," LaFata said.
"To me, the most important thing is having a lot of fun and doing what you love. It doesn't matter if you're not making a ton of money," he said. "I never want to do the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday."
LaFata said his dream is constantly evolving.
"I know that whatever my dream is, it has to be on the road. I feel most content and most in tune with myself when I'm traveling," he said. "I have older relatives who have said, 'If I could do it all over again ...' I say, why don't you just do it now? Life is way too short to give up on a dream."
Losing a close friend emphasized that philosophy.
"Meg (Kays '12) was like my sister. She had big dreams – she wanted to move different places and see different things. She was passionate about helping people – her dream was to eventually run her own non-profit," LaFata said. She died after being hit by a car while running.
"Everyone talks about planning for the future and getting a stable career. What's the point? You can go for a run and get hit by a car," he said. "Live so you don't have any regrets."
LaFata, who travels on a shoestring budget, funded by working in various places. "You don't need money to do what you love; you find ways to do it," he said.
His method for labeling his videos by the numbered day of his life recently hit 9,000. Thinking of his life as day by day enhances his appreciation of it.
"I have maybe 20,000 more days to do what I want to do," he said. "I can't waste any of those days – all of those days are precious."
Clarion
"I originally chose Clarion because of the business program, but in my senior year of high school I took a psychology class," LaFata said. "Before I even got (to Clarion), I switched my major to psychology, then I changed it eight more times."
The various majors reflected LaFata's openness to learning.
"I took an English class, and it wasn't like English in high school. You can write
whatever the hell you want to write about. You can even swear if you want to," he
said. "Then I took a philosophy class and thought it was so amazing."
LaFata said he cherishes the opportunities Clarion gave him.
"Whatever I wanted to do – if I wanted to learn more about philosophy, there's Philosophy Club; more about psychology, that opportunity was there," he said. "I wanted to go to a leadership conference in Miami, and I had to write a paper to be able to go. I came back and helped plan a leadership conference at Clarion. The next year I wanted to speak, and that opportunity was there – anything I wanted to do."
Going into his senior year, LaFata met with his advisor, Joseph Croskey, who looked at his classes and told him he could have his degree in liberal studies. He thought about staying an additional two years to focus on writing, but he graduated in May 2013 with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies, with minors in psychology and business.