Kelly Corrigan

I landed as a nanny for two kids, four and seven, who had just lost their mom.

The heavy lifting was left for the truly brave, a man who organized his emotions and answered the hardest questions, questions like, what is cremation?

And what happens to us if you die?

That's how the brave shine.

That's all they do.

They say, tell me more.

What else?

Go on.

Even if they're scared of what might happen next, even if they have no training or experience to prepare them for this moment.

This is for my mom, even though when I called her to say, hey, have you heard of TED, T-E-D?

She said, oh my God, Kelly, it's not another virus, is it?

As a 21-year-old, I was drawn to the word brave.

I had a soft spot for ripping yarns and the people who could tell them.

So, odyssey on the brain, I went out adventure collecting.

Without knowing how to spell starboard or which side it referred to, I got on a 46-foot boat, and I sailed from Malta to Tunisia to Sicily.

I traveled 11,000 miles over 13 months,

to seven different countries without a plan or a phone or a credit card.

Just $3,800 in traveler's checks, which, if you're under 30, was like a little booklet of ... perforated ... I don't know.

And some expired antibiotics my mom made me bring.

And then, running out of money, I landed as a nanny for two kids, four and seven, who had just lost their mom.