There are some destinations that hold a different kind of place in my worldly desires, and Samoa has long been one of them for me. By the summer of 2022, my interest in Samoa was no longer only about wanting to visit another beautiful part of the Pacific. It had become tied to timing, interruption, and the reality that some journeys take far longer to unfold than you ever imagined when the dream first began.
Samoa has held its place among the destinations I have most wanted to reach for years. The desire was there from early on, and as my connection to the Pacific grew, so did the meaning behind finally making it there. But the road itself has not been straightforward. It has been shaped by setbacks, delays, changed plans, and long stretches where the timing simply did not align. Looking back, that has become part of the story too.
Samoa Had Been Part of the Dream for Years
When I was around 15 years old, I first came across American Samoa while looking through the CIA World Factbook and letting my curiosity pull me outward into the wider world. That early discovery opened a door for me. From there, it was not hard to realize that if American Samoa had captured my interest, Samoa naturally would too. The Samoan islands began to take on a larger meaning in my imagination, not only because of where they were on the map, but because of what they seemed to represent. There was culture, language, identity, continuity, and a part of Polynesia that felt deeply rooted and deeply compelling.
At first, it was simply a dream. Over time, it became something with more depth than that. The more I traveled, the more I understood that places like Samoa were not just destinations to me. They were part of a deeper pull toward Oceania and toward learning through people, place, and the ways of life that continue across the Pacific.
The Journey Could Have Happened Earlier
There was a point when I thought I might have made it to the Samoan islands much sooner.
Back in 2017, I was on a path that could have eventually brought me through that part of the world. But life has its own way of changing the route, and for me one of those major turns came through injury. Rupturing my Achilles changed far more than just my physical circumstances in that moment. It interrupted movement, halted momentum, and shifted the shape of what I thought might come next. Plans that feel possible in one season can suddenly fall away in the next, and that was part of what happened then.
Even so, the destination itself never lost its importance to me. The route had changed, but the desire to eventually make it to Samoa remained intact.
Photo credit: Svenʻs Travel Venues
Then the Pacific Shifted Again
As the years moved forward, that desire did not fade. If anything, it became more grounded.
By 2020, the Pacific was once again part of my thinking in a serious way. There was a growing sense that I was continuing toward the wider journey I had long imagined, and that destinations like Samoa might finally come into reach. Then the world changed. COVID reshaped everything. Borders closed, movement stalled, and the Pacific became a very different place to navigate. What had already once been delayed now felt pushed back again.
That carried its own frustration, because it was not only about missing a trip. It was about feeling a much larger route interrupted yet again. Some places ask more of your patience than others, and by then Samoa had become one of those places in my life.
The Longer the Wait, the More It Meant
What changed over time was not only the timeline, but the meaning behind the destination itself.
My relationship with the Pacific did not remain abstract. I spent time in Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and later Hawaiʻi, and each of those experiences deepened something in me. Travel in the Pacific stopped being a distant fascination and became a real thread in my life. The more I learned through movement, connection, and lived experience, the more I understood that Samoa was not becoming less important with time. It was gaining more significance.
That is part of why the road there had even deeper meaning. The longer I moved through Oceania, the more Samoa began to feel like an unfinished part of the journey. It continued to feel like a chapter that truly needed to happen.
By the time Samoa reopened to tourism in August of 2022, that unfinished feeling rose back up in a stronger way. Reopening did not instantly put me on a plane, but it did remind me that the destination was once again within reach, and that my own desire to go had outlasted injury, delay, world events, and time itself.
Why I’ve Been Patience for Voyaging Samoa
Part of Samoa’s hold on me comes from the same reason the Pacific has come to mean so much to me as a whole. I am drawn to places where culture is not just something spoken about, but something lived. I am drawn to the depth of island worlds, to the ways history, language, movement, family, and respect shape everyday life. I am drawn to places where learning happens most through presence. Samoa has long felt like one of those places.
And by now, the desire to go is not only about seeing it for myself. It is also about finally meeting a place that has carried real meaning through different phases of life, different plans, and different versions of the journey. Not every destination carries that kind of history within you, but Samoa does for me.
Some Roads Take Longer Than You Think
By the summer of 2023, I still had not made it to Samoa yet, but I could already see more clearly why the voyage there had even more depth. What began as a dream in my teens had become a longer lesson in patience, timing, and staying true to the places that continue to call to something deeper in you, even when the route is anything but smooth.
Through injury, through COVID, through rerouted plans and years of voyaging in the Pacific, Samoa never lost its importance to me. So while I still looked ahead with excitement and curiosity, I also looked ahead with a deeper understanding that this was no longer only about reaching another island destination. It was about finally arriving somewhere that had held real meaning in my journey for years, and honoring the road that led me there.
It would eventually lead me to live in American Samoa for over a year, and finally spend three beautiful months across Samoa. How’s that for perseverance.
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