One afternoon, as I sat in a small café, pondering my next move, a man took the seat next to me. It was Gideon Samuels, an American who introduced himself as a reporter for Rolling Stone. He was there to write an article on a new Asian form of blues and rock, a precursor to what we now know as K-pop.

In 1992, as the Bosnian Civil War erupted, I found myself traveling through Eastern Europe, only to become trapped in the besieged city of Sarajevo.

... a 16-year-old with a taste for adventure, was on a high school trip to Washington, D.C. Not one to conform to the humdrum itinerary of the group ,...