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> How do I pitch this kind of story to an editor?

You don't.

Not until you've a) proven you can deliver fantastic, expertly written stories; and b) done something so extraordinary in your life that readers would be more interested in you than the fascinating people editors normally want their writers to cover — world leaders, movie stars, disease-curing scientists, and war heroes.

The way you do that is you work your way up the ranks covering more and more interesting people and topics until you've earned a reputation as top-notch feature writer. Then you dive into something so wild, people will pay to hear your tale of your experiences. Like when Rory Stewart walked alone across Afghanistan with a war going on all around him.

Hunter S. Thompson spent years working his way up from entry-level journalism jobs until he started writing magazine-style features. His "gonzo" career took off after he got a magazine assignment to cover the Hell's Angels. He spent nearly two years living with the gang and turned his experiences into a book.

Anthony Bourdain spent 20 years as a chef before writing a magazine article about the crazy, drug-fuelled shit that goes on in New York kitchens he worked in. That earned him a deal to turn the article into a best-selling book.

No one wants to read about a nobody who has done nothing.

Most of the time, journalists cover people who are far more fascinating than themselves. Even Pulitzer-winner Katherine Boo, who spent three years in an Indian slum researching her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, doesn't say a word about herself in it, preferring to tell the stories of the slum inhabitants.

So start with writing profiles and features for your school paper or magazine. Maybe there's a prof on campus with a great back story who has made some big discovery. Write their stories with depth and colour. Move up to pitching stories to magazines about other amazing people doing incredible things. Transition into some travel writing to work on some more first-person stories. Or, as /u/CoolBeans17 points out, perhaps there are some alternative papers, city magazines, and blogs near you who will take more offbeat writing. I know few writers in my city who eventually earned semi-regular first-person feature spots in local publications. One started out doing quirky coverage of the local music scene, moved up to covering visiting bands, and now does his weird shit with big name acts. He's more interesting than a lot of musicians he covers, but he still doesn't try to outshine them.

Once you've developed nearly celebrity status and are on good terms with big-time editors, then you can call one of them up and say, "Hey, remember that awesome profile I did for you about that princess? She's asked me to lead her band of rebels when we try to blow up the Death Star. Can I give you 4,000 first-person words on it for the August issue when I get back?"

Then you get your literary agent to line up a book deal and movie rights.

Edit: some corrections.