This Fourth of July weekend, I stayed home.
That may not sound remarkable, but for someone who is so often on a plane, in a hotel room or recovering from one trip while packing for the next—I just returned from Cape Cod and am already preparing for Svalbard—it felt like a celebration in itself.
I baked a cake for America. I sang patriotic songs with old friends. I spent an afternoon at a pool party with immigrant friends who, like me, have made lives in this country while carrying other countries, cultures, and memories with us.
The weekend also made me think about my own arrival in America.
Thirty years ago this summer, I boarded a plane from India. I had just finished the 10th grade and planned to spend a few weeks visiting relatives in Atlanta. I never imagined that trip would become the beginning of a new life.
My first glimpse of America came at JFK Airport. Before I noticed the size of the airport or the skyline, I noticed the people—hugging, kissing, laughing loudly, arguing and crying without embarrassment. Everywhere I looked, people of different races, religions, and cultures shared the same space. I remember thinking, The whole world is here.
But it was the small acts of kindness that made me fall in love with this country. When I stood confused in a laundromat without enough quarters, strangers handed me coins and showed me how to use the machines. A pastor taught me to drive in his Cadillac. Families from church took my grandmother and me to Sunday brunch. Family friends picked us up from the Atlanta airport and took us straight to McDonald’s for my first American meal, then to IHOP to celebrate my 10th-grade exam results.
No one owed us anything. Yet people welcomed us anyway.
Those moments—not skyscrapers or shopping malls—made me want to return. The following year, I moved here and made America my home.
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, I have been thinking about everything this country has given me. I have now traveled to almost every state and explored many of our national parks, yet I still have so much left to see. Every trip reminds me how much beauty, history, creativity, and resilience exist in our own backyard.
Somewhere between the cake, the singing, the pool, and the fireworks, I realized that half of 2026 is already gone.
So I took inventory.
I started the year in India, surrounded by family for a special celebration.
Since then, I have traveled to wellness retreats in Mexico and Hilton Head, attended Travel Classics in Switzerland, seen snow monkeys in Japan, visited friends in Los Angeles, and taken several weekend getaways around GA.
In Tanzania, I was the first guest to stay at a new safari camp in Tarangire National Park. I watched the sun rise over the Serengeti from a hot-air balloon, listened to lions roar at night, and visited a school supported by a local foundation. These are the moments that remind me why I became a travel writer in the first place.
I also traveled closer to home—to Buffalo and Cape Cod. I am finding that some of the most satisfying stories do not require crossing an ocean.
At NTA in Charleston, I gave a keynote on how travel professionals can move people from simply consuming destinations to caring about them. Public speaking continues to be one of the most rewarding extensions of my work because it brings together everything I have learned from travel, journalism, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit work.
Later this year, I will also be speaking at the Outdoor Media Summit in Asheville.
Of course, much of the first half of the year was spent doing what I actually do most days: sitting at my computer.
I published stories in TIME, Fodor’s, HuffPost, AAA, Georgia Trend and Khabar. I also wrote a big chunk of the 2027 Explore Georgia travel guide.
The assignments vary widely, which is one of the things I love about my work. I write mini destination guides and niche roundups, restaurant and hotel stories, and deeply personal essays drawn from my own experiences.
Some stories require me to report on a place over several days. Others come from a question I have been thinking about for months. Increasingly, I am interested in stories that connect travel with health, food, culture, wildlife, and the people shaping a destination.
I published. I pitched. I followed up. I wrote stories from places I had just visited and places I had been thinking about for years. I continued building relationships with editors and PR professionals, some of whom have known me for more than a decade and others who are just discovering my work.
The glamorous travel-writing life, as always, includes a great deal of time staring at a laptop.
There were also moments when deadlines, trips, and professional ambitions suddenly lost their urgency.
My 16-year-old cat, Beato, had a serious health scare.
Anyone who has loved an aging animal knows how quickly life reorganizes itself around medications, appointments, and watching closely for the smallest changes. I canceled and changed plans. I spent more time at home.
I have also started cooking sous vide chicken for Beato. The cat has finally gotten a taste of Michelin-star dining and his mother’s lifestyle!
Beato has been part of my professional life for years as the star of my Beato Goes To children’s book series. But he is, first, my family. His health has made me think even more carefully about how much time I want to spend away from home.
This year, I have also been trying to take better care of the person who does all this traveling.
I found a trainer. I am going to the gym more regularly. I am paying more attention to strength, sleep, protein, and recovery.
After several wellness trips over the past few years, I am learning that wellness is not another trip to book or retreat to review. The real work happens at home, in ordinary routines, when nobody is watching. Read my blog about learning to eat.
After years of measuring productivity in flights taken, countries visited, and stories published, I am trying to ask different questions.
I am trying to fly less, stay closer to home when I can, and be more selective about the trips I accept.
Last month, I became the Chair of the SATW DEAI Committee. If you would like to join the next meeting, suggest a speaker or a topic, or sponsor a session, please contact me.
In April, I started the Saffron Circle, bringing together South Asian women in Atlanta who are shaping the food and beverage world as chefs, restaurateurs, founders, makers and entrepreneurs.
For years, I have traveled around the world seeking out women who preserve recipes, start businesses, and use food to create change. Then I realized how many extraordinary women were doing that work right here in Atlanta.
The Saffron Circle is still young, but it has reminded me how much I value creating connections rather than just collecting them.
Meanwhile, Go Eat Give, the blog I started 15 years ago, is growing again.
Fifteen years is a long time on the internet.
I started Go Eat Give before “content creator” was a career title, before Instagram shaped where people traveled, and before every destination had an influencer strategy. The platform has changed many times, as have I.
Yet readership is rising.
That feels especially meaningful at a time when independent media faces so many challenges. Perhaps readers are still hungry for stories with context. I hope so.
The second half of the year starts almost immediately.
This week, I am leaving for Svalbard. I will be gone for the next few days, trading Atlanta’s summer heat for the Arctic.
After that, there are more stories to write, assignments to finish, and trips already on the calendar.
My goals are not dramatically different from the ones I set in January—to publish meaningful stories, keep speaking, grow Go Eat Give and the Saffron Circle, be stronger and healthier, and spend time with the people—and the cat—I love.
The Fourth of July weekend reminded me that a full life does not always require going somewhere. Sometimes it looks like baking a cake, singing old songs with old friends, sharing a pool with people who came to America from many different places, and sitting in a dark theater while a story from Paraguay unfolds onstage. Watch Basura if you get a chance!
For once, I was home for all of it.
Please take a moment to read my Substack post about what I cover and the kinds of stories I would like to be pitched. Please do not follow up asking for deadlines, outlets, etc. I will reach out with details if your pitch is a good fit.
Sicily & Tunisia (August–September 2026)
I’m actively researching stories and would welcome conversations regarding hosted media stays, boutique hotels, sustainable tourism experiences, culinary programs, agritourism properties, food producers, and unique cultural experiences.
Gift Guides (Nov 2026)
Planning ahead, as testing products consumes a lot of my time. I am looking for products related to travel, lifestyle, and culinary, but really anything worth giving and receiving.
The 6 Most Beautiful Food Trails Around the World - Food & Wine
Bold, Beautiful, and Ambitious Ikara - Khabar Magazine (Print)
A Bakery Where Vegan Isn’t a Compromise - Georgia Trend Magazine
I Thought I Knew How to Eat. Then Mexico Taught Me Otherwise - Go Eat Give
In Search of the Perfect Mango - Khabar Magazine (Print)
How Just 10 Words in Japanese Changed My Trip in Kyushu - The Real World by Trafalgar
The Leadership Secret Hidden in Uganda’s Chimpanzee Forests - Go Eat Give
Safari, Southern Style: A Wildly Luxurious Escape Outside Atlanta - Social Atlanta
Trailblazing Indy - AAA The Extra Mile (Print)
Is ‘Pasture-Raised’ Chicken Worth The Price? Here’s The Truth - HuffPost
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