Written by Sam Goodwin, World Traveler
My name is Sam Goodwin. I’m originally from (and am currently based in) St. Louis, Missouri – just down the road from Keith and his crew at FOSNOD. I grew up playing a lot of ice hockey since that’s a big thing in St. Louis. I even ended up playing in college at Niagara University in upstate New York. When I graduated in 2012, I took my first professional job in Singapore. I planned to only be in Singapore for about three months but ended up staying for six years. It was a fantastic experience; a great way to begin my professional career. During this time, I traveled as much as I could and I was fortunate to be in the heart of Southeast Asia. I had the world’s best airport in my backyard and I took advantage of it as often as I could. I didn’t like to repeat places, so even if I went somewhere and had a fantastic experience one weekend, I would just go somewhere different the next.
For me, travel was a big part of my life because it was fun and I enjoyed it, but most importantly, I learned from my travels – in fact, it was the best education I ever had. There are so many lessons and takeaways that I garnered from those experiences. And many are right in line with the idea of FOSNOD – Focusing On Similarities, Not On Differences. I’ve learned to never judge people by the actions of their government. I’ve learned that people who have the least often give the most. I also learned that everybody’s “why” is the same. We all eat, sleep, breathe, and we all want to be happy. We’re all chasing some kind of goal or dream. It’s only the “how” that varies. Some of these things that I’ve taken from experiences, and I feel really fortunate to be able to kind of lean on those perspectives in, in a lot of different facets of my life.
So, as I moved forward on this travel journey, it evolved into a desire to experience every country in the world. It was something that I decided to complete, and I nearly did in December of 2019 – in fact, on New Year’s Eve of 2019 and I am still so grateful for those experiences and perspectives.
But my journey to every country wasn’t all smooth sailing. Probably the most notable challenge was in the summer of 2019. I was wrongfully detained on false charges in Syria. I was held for nine weeks and – thanks to God, and a long list of people who worked tirelessly during that time – I was released and I was able to come home safely. From a certain standpoint, one of the things that stands out to me is the engagements that I had with the other Syrian inmates. These people were some of the most remarkable people that I’ve ever met anywhere in the world. Virtually none of them were true criminals. They were just victims of a corrupt criminal justice system. And they became my friends. We cooked and we shared food together. We played basketball together. We slept in the same spaces; we lived in the same conditions together. And throughout, these men were a remarkable display of humanity.
My time with these men really emphasized and highlighted some of the things that I mentioned about how FOSNOD played into my experience. For instance, the overwhelming majority of people in the world are well-intentioned and proud of their country, and they are happy to help others. I have been fortunate to experience people in all corners of the world and these characteristics are overwhelmingly what I have experienced. Unfortunately, there are sometimes a small subset of people that give their larger group a bad reputation, and all too often, this small subset seems to scream louder than the good people and it influences the way the world perceives the whole group.
As a well-traveled individual, I definitely think having the FOSNOD mindset is the best way to travel. The majority of people are good people – despite any differences there may be between us on the surface. We are all fundamentally the same. We all eat, sleep, breathe, love, want to be happy, and are chasing some kind of dream. That realization is maybe one of the most profound things that I’ve learned and regardless of location in the world that is true.
When Keith first mentioned FOSNOD to me – especially having just come off of my experience in Syria – It just resonated with me right away. And I feel like the more that we FOSNOD the better. I am happy to be one of the FOSNOD’s website’s first contributors. This is a movement I hope grows and finds its way into the minds of everyone who hears it.