Hey! I’m Gabby Beckford. The Exit Row 🌺✈️ is a reminder to stay one decision away from adventure, optimism, and a sky full of possibilities.
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Reader
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it actually means to make a life that feels like yours, not like the version someone else laid out for you.
Part of why this came up is because I’ve been watching one of the wildest travel projects of the moment: IShowSpeed's Speed Does Africa tour.
He’s doing a 28-day journey across roughly 20 African countries with daily livestreams, and the way people are responding is insane. The coverage and engagement this has gotten feels like proof of something bigger than a viral moment.
Watching that unfold in real time, unscripted, messy, human… made me think about travel differently for the year ahead.
Years ago, when we all watched Anthony Bourdain take over the world, it didn’t feel like he was making content. It felt like he was responding to the world, listening to it, letting it surprise him.
That’s always stuck with me.
And honestly, when I look at something like what Speed Does Africa is doing – all instinct and curiosity and courage and no template – it feels like the same spirit.
A lot of the time, especially when you’re trying to build a life that doesn’t come with a blueprint, the hardest part isn’t the execution.
It’s accepting that the road isn’t going to be drawn for you before you take the first step.
If IShowSpeed or Anthony Bourdain had tried to plan every single episode ahead of time, or map out exactly how success would happen before they left the gate, none of what’s now so interesting or meaningful would exist.
The path comes into view as you walk it.
That resonates for travel, but it resonates for life too.
I spent a lot of 2025 trying to plan, tick boxes, and make sure each thing fit somewhere on a timeline or category. In practice, that just made me busy. It didn’t make me richer, fuller, or clearer.
The trips that ended up mattering most (whether it was Croatia, Jordan, or Costa Rica for my birthday) were the ones where I wasn’t just collecting checkboxes.
I was showing up to be changed.
And I realized the trips that change you rarely come from perfect planning. They come from access, intention, and saying yes when the door opens.
That’s part of why I love Paid Travel Opportunities, like the ones we collect and share in SeekPTO. They create room for travel to begin with curiosity and courage, and not be limited by cost. They open doors with new adventures for you to say yes to.
I felt that so clearly in Costa Rica.
I thought about how I’ve long told myself I want to learn another language. I’d make plans that sounded nice, but they were shallow because they fit neatly around everything else. One week fully immersed did more for my Spanish than twelve months of halfhearted attempts with an app.
It wasn’t convenient. It wasn’t scheduled around everything else.
It happened because I was there, paying attention.
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So as we start 2026, I’m not thinking about doing more.
I’m thinking more about what it feels like to follow the thread of curiosity even when the outcome is unclear.
Risk isn’t noise.
Risk isn’t busyness.
Risk is the part where you decide it’s your life to live, not just yours to plan.
I’m not here to tell you to copy someone else’s journey.
I’m here to say that the thread between boldness and meaning isn’t certainty. It’s a commitment to showing up even when you can’t see the path. That’s the version of travel that actually changes you.
That’s the version of life that feels full.
Same row. Same view. Just a little less waiting for someone to show you how the world works.
– Gabby 🌺✈️❤️🔥