27 // Property tax consultant *
From: London, England
Lives in: River North
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As the son of a British diplomat, Marsden spent part of his childhood in Turkey and India and developed an acute desire for adventurous—and sometimes ill-advised—travel. In September, he’s taking leave from his job to live out a decade-old dream of journeying 2,400 miles across India and Nepal in a motorized rickshaw with three of his closest friends.

How do your parents feel about this? “My mom’s been worrying ever since I told her, and my dad—I think there’s a twinkle in his eye when we talk about it.”

Why do it? “I’d much rather spend money on sharing an experience with friends or a girlfriend or family. I think the dividends of the memories of those experiences will pay off for the rest of your life.”

On trips gone awry: “In this little town called Ranthambore in Rajasthan, I quite stupidly drank some local water, and I got very sick. So my friends took me to a local doctor who wasn’t a doctor. He just happened to have some medicine, and he injected, like, ten different things. It nearly killed me.”

On his final resting place: “If I had to be scattered in England, our family has had a farm since the 1600s, and it’s a beautiful place in Derbyshire in a national park. Lots of rolling English hills, and there’s a Marsden graveyard near the church. Otherwise, yes, shoot me out to space. You know, I’m not sure. I think I need to live a bit more of my life until I adhere to where I want to be scattered. But I think at the end of the day it doesn’t matter too much. So I suppose wherever my loved ones deem fit.”

On bad British cinema: “Love Actually. It’s so nauseating. I can’t tell you. It was hell moving to America shortly after its release—some people actually believed that Hugh Grant was the prime minister of England.” —N.O.