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Sam James Travel & Tours

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05/11/2026

I wasn’t even looking for a conversation. I was just waiting for viral pancakes.

About a year ago, I was seriously considering moving abroad. The desire was there, but fear kept making excuses... elderly grandparents, family close by, a city I loved. All of it was heavy on my mind when I sat down at a diner bar in Lower Manhattan.

The woman next to me was named Kat. She’d moved to NYC 10 years ago for a 2-year work gig and never left. When I told her I was weighing a move abroad-the excitement, the fears, all of it- she listened, then said: “If you want to go now, you’ll always want to go. NYC will always be there.”

Simply put. But at the time, fear was driving, and I couldn’t see what now feels obvious. My layoff in 2025 made the move possible, and the desire that was with me then, is still with me now. NYC will be there. My family will be there. I only have one life, and it’s mine to live.

I think about Kat sometimes. We never exchanged numbers. But she gave me something real. The kind of connection I used to think you had to travel across the world to find, but was actually available to me on an ordinary Saturday, in my own city, waiting on pancakes.

05/07/2026

A year ago today, I got the notification. I stared at the unopened email for three days.

My first instinct was no. I couldn’t see a clear path to it working out. Fear has a way of making the unknown feel like a guarantee of failure.

Since then, I’ve learned that fear can show in the form of logistics. Like, the timing isn’t right...let me think about it a little longer..there’s no way I can survive on that income.

After a few days of sitting, reflecting, and sharing with a trusted few, I said yes! But the fear hadn’t gone away completely, I just stopped letting it make the decisions.

That “yes” has taken me to so many places I didn’t expect. I’m learning to trust myself. I’m spending time with people whose lives look nothing like mine, and I’m learning that we’re all more similar than different. That realisation has changed everything.

A year later, I’m still unpacking the difference between fear and intuition when it comes to decision-making.

What’s the decision you keep coming back to, but fear keeps answering first? Drop it in the comments. Even if you haven’t said it out loud yet, say it here. 🧡

04/22/2026

Going to art museums in other countries makes me feel connected to all of humanity. ❤️

For all of human history, people have used art for entertainment, connection, and cathartic expression. It was literally the social media of its time.

I find myself wondering: what did someone wake up thinking about 400 years ago? What moved them enough to create something, or to go witness someone else’s creation?

Even though we communicate completely differently now, we have been expressing the same fundamental sentiments for centuries. That gets me every time.

And then you travel to a different continent, a completely different culture, and the art still rhymes. Different hands, different centuries, different languages. Same longing.

We are one human race. Different places, different histories, sure. But there is so much more that connects us than divides us, and art is where I feel that most clearly.

That’s why I seek out museums when I travel. Not for the famous pieces. For the feeling that I am not as alone in this human experience as I sometimes think.

What’s one thing you’ve seen in a museum abroad that made you feel this way?

04/20/2026

I used to measure my life against everyone else’s. Then I sat in a market in Phuket and something big shifted.

For most of my twenties, I was following the path I thought I was supposed to follow. First you do this, then that, then the next thing. When I graduated with my Master’s in 2017, I remember sitting with a feeling I didn’t expect- deep unfulfillment. I was proud of myself. But it felt like another box checked on a list I hadn’t written.

I kept going anyway. Climbed the career ladder. Things looked good on paper, on Instagram, on my resume. But underneath it, the same hollow feeling followed me.

Then I went to Thailand.

I was thousands of miles from home, surrounded by a culture with completely different expectations and definitions of a life well-lived. And what hit me was that the people around me were just as fulfilled as anyone I knew back home. Maybe more.

Nobody was following my script. They had built something entirely their own, and it worked.

That was the first time I understood that there is no single right way to live a full life. There are millions of them. And most of us never get to see that because we never leave the only version we know.

I don’t have it all figured out yet. But I stopped needing to follow someone else’s map.

Save this if you’ve ever felt like your life should look different than it does. 💙

04/09/2026

Some trips stay with you, and I can’t stop thinking about Morocco.

Every trip adds a new perspective & serves as a reminder that the world is so much bigger than my day-to-day.

And in seeing that, we can start to understand ourselves a little more too.

Thank you, Morocco. 🖤

04/02/2026

“Community cannot take root in a divided life. Long before community assumes external shape and form, it must be present as a seed in the undivided self: only as we are in communion with ourselves can we find community with others.”- Parker Palmer 💛🫶🏾

02/16/2026

Celebrating small wins this week! ✨💅💅🏽

08/20/2025

It’s been an epic summer! 🙂‍↔️What’s one new thing you’ve done?

08/13/2025

1 question I am frequently asked about solo trips,”...but who takes the pics??”

STRANGERS!!

I ask other humans to take pics of me. 🙂 Talking to new people aka “strangers” is one of my favorite parts about solo tripping/adventuring.

Research actually tells us that talking to strangers can boost our wellbeing, mood, and even how we see the world.

In this week’s episode of Am I Trippin?’, I explore why these everyday conversations matter.

🎙️ Episode #3 is live now! (Link in bio!)

08/07/2025

Solo trips = the best time to talk to strangers. Tomorrow’s podcast episode is all about why those random convos with strangers can actually boost your mood and overall wellbeing (science says so 🧠).

If you’re into solo travel or just curious, subscribe via the link in my bio to catch it when it drops.💛

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