Remember when you were a kid? When any fireman or astronaut could visit the steps of your school or the pages of your books and convince you to dream big? 

A few weeks ago, the other National Geographic Education interns and I got to meet some amazing people who would turn out to be just that–people we wanted to be. It’s never too late in life to be amazed, nor is it ever too early to expand your dreams. We got to sit down with most of the National Geographic Emerging Explorers for a half-hour or more (distilled versions of those interviews will be available on natgeoed.org in a few weeks). We also got to hear from some of the veteran Explorers and Fellows, who presented their research and updates from the field during the week long Explorers Symposium. We even got to see marine ecologist Enric Sala and filmmaker James Cameron earn the distinction of being named the newest Explorers in Residence. 

In this post, I’ve condensed some of the lessons we learned about explorers and exploring. It won’t tell you much about the explorers themselves (I’ve added links for that, and there’s always Google), but it will advise you on how to live the coolest life ever.