A Northville resident says he’s set a world record for travel. Michael Zervos has been documenting the journey on social media under the name “Project Kosmos.” And a book about his travels is in the works.
Zervos traveled to 195 United Nations-recognized countries in 499 days, breaking the previous record of 554 days. He arrived home in May. He's submitted his journey to Guinness World Records for review.
But Zervos didn’t travel just to break a record. In each country, he asked residents: “What is the happiest moment of your life?” Every response was unique, Zervos said.
“They’re kind of like fingerprints where the texture of the stories are different from person to person, and you couldn't have another person tell that same story,” he said.
Zervos started the project after a bout with depression at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“I work in movies. I have for pretty much my whole professional career,” he said. “And around that time, as you might imagine, movies weren't being made. And it was like my voice was stripped from my person and my identity was stripped from me.”
Zervos soon realized he wasn’t alone. And the industry he worked in was feeling the effects of COVID, with theater attendance declining even as businesses began opening back up. Zervos said he wanted to use storytelling to help people, in a way that movies weren’t.
“I started to imagine how I could use stories to help other people who maybe weren't experiencing that same thing because of the pandemic, but were experiencing it over the last ten or 15 or 20 years,” he said.
The trip was grueling at times. Zervos often slept on buses or planes. At one point, he had a bad sinus infection that lasted a month.
But Zervos was encouraged by the stories he heard.
“I think the thing that pushed me ahead were all of the stories that I collected,” he said. “I mean, it was every single day I would hear stories of happiness from people, and that's what motivated me on a mental level.”
