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Daniel Seddiqui has crisscrossed the United States at least 20 times. But he’s never been here.
The man dubbed the most traveled person in the U.S. will make his first visit to the Rio Grande Valley this week, with an open mind.
“I haven’t even looked at photos,” Seddiqui, 41, said. “I have no idea if it’s mountainous, if it’s prairie … In terms of the cityscape or the local culture, I could only envision what it looks like.”
New adventures have become Seddiqui’s passion. After graduating from the University of Southern California, his struggle to find employment led to his first project: He worked a new job every two weeks in each state in the nation. He was a cheesemaker in Wisconsin, a meatpacker in Kansas and a lobsterman in Maine, to name a few.
Seddiqui documented the experience on his website, Living the Map, and wrote “50 Jobs in 50 States: One Man’s Journey of Discovery Across America” in 2011.
Fifteen years later, plus two more books — “Going the Extra Mile–One Man’s Curiosity Through America Leads to Compassion” in 2020 and “Piecing Together America” in 2022 — and the RGV is his remaining pinpoint.
“I look at the U.S. map and I’m like, been there, been there — every corner, every road essentially,” said Seddiqui. “I feel like that curiosity beast will be checked off.”
Also an established public speaker, Seddiqui will address attendees of the Rio Grande Valley Society for Human Resources Management in McAllen during his visit, where he’ll discuss his job-seeker journey and explore professional empathy and lasting connections.
“I’ll talk about my own personal journey of ‘no’s.”
Also among his deep South Texas travel plans: comida and cultura.
“I talked to Travel Brownsville recently about the Taco Trail,” Seddiqui said, adding he’ll visit one of the city’s international bridges. “I like to just circle around the cities and kind of get a good sense of the architecture and the cityscape and the infrastructure.”
The California native, who now resides in Oregon, believes what’s introduced to a person as a child can influence the rest of their life.
“This happened to me when my parents bought me an atlas.”
His world opened up further when he took to the road.
“I grew up in Silicon Valley, the Bay area,” Seddiqui said. “People are ambitious, (with) similar values of work, of family, hobbies and pastimes. Very much a bubble. When I left, I experienced for the first time hunting, fishing, coal … all of these things were culture shocks. The regional cultures are extremely fascinating to me and it’s the reason I’ve continued to travel.”
He has battled trepidation as he embedded himself in different communities across the country.
“Even though I‘m well experienced, I feel that reluctancy and uncertainty. Every time I started over, it was scary. I didn’t know what the next state was going to bring. But boy, I would miss out on a lot of things if I let fear seep into my mental state. If I acted closed or didn’t want to talk to people, then guess what, you’re missing out on connections, on local identity.”
He sighted his time with a rodeo in South Dakota in his early travel days.
“I was scared. I was timid. I felt like an outsider in my own country. I didn’t understand cowboy culture,” he recalled. “I was so grateful people were wanting to show me a good time. I was embracing something new and embracing the process … (but) I was unable to wrestle a steer.”
The married father of a 2 year old, who maintains a career in addition to his continued travel writing and speaking engagements, encouraged opened minds for Americans.
“It’s a great big country we live in,” Seddiqui said. “Every place is different and that’s why I like America so much. What binds us together, in theory, is pride in our country.”
