UK graduate hitchhiked around the U.S. for 8 years. It inspired what she’s doing next.

That Martha Tillson, one of Friday’s University of Kentucky commencement speakers, is a gifted young woman was never in doubt.

She skipped the eighth grade at her Massachusetts school, then attended both prestigious Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and Reed College in Oregon. For a while, she wanted to be a writer or a high school English teacher.

But it was in the eight years she spent off-and-on hitchhiking that she found the seeds of her ultimate calling — research into the drug and alcohol misuse she saw while on the road.

“A lot of those things I saw while traveling pushed me toward social work,” Tillson said.

Tillson lived with a backpack, sleeping bag and dog named Ruckus, sleeping in woods and beneath overpasses, working day and seasonal jobs, busking with a trumpet and later an accordion: “I treated it similar to camping.”

She often traveled in a group while on the road. Then she came to Lexington to deliver a puppy to a friend. One day, she went to Red River Gorge and began to feel a sense of community with Kentucky and its residents falling into place.

“Everyone is very welcoming,” she said of the Kentuckians she met.” “Going to the Gorge kind of sealed that.”

She enrolled in Bluegrass Community and Technical college, then the University of Kentucky. She received a bachelor’s degree in social work and psychology on Friday, and has worked in substance abuse research while at UK. She expects to continue that work while she decides what to do now, whether enrolling in a master’s level program or seeking a Ph.d

In the course of her travels, Tillson, 30, has seen every state in the continental United States — if not in a quality manner, she has at least set foot there. (Michigan in the ice and snow turned out to look exactly like the other side of the state border, with ice and snow.) She preferred more rural areas to cities.

She referred to her time on the road as “houseless,” not homeless. She has a special interest in substance abuse, because during her travels she met many people with that problem.

“It’s really striking in a lot of populations where I didn’t expect to see it,” Tillson said, noting that addiction occurs with people who are both mobile and stable. “It cuts across a lot of those expectations.”

Tillson’s published research focused on the link between the age at which a young woman has her first sexual experience, her first arrest, her first brush with drugs. The three factors can be linked among rural women in jails, Tillson’s research found. The three factors can also predict high-risk drug use and sexual behaviors as adults.

She was urged by UK mentors to apply to be a commencement speaker, which Tillson said is out of her comfort zone. She decided to accept the challenge.

Like her research, the speech is meticulously planned, but the focus is different from working with the experiences of others.

“You’re expected to be very honest and share your experiences,” Tillson said.

Thirteen years after high school graduation, she was ready to do just that.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 2:04 PM with the headline "UK graduate hitchhiked around the U.S. for 8 years. It inspired what she’s doing next.."