The World Cup has given the world a front-row seat to America—not through the media, but through everyday Americans. Visitors are discovering what we already know: people are far more alike than they are different. Sometimes it takes seeing your country through someone else’s eyes to appreciate how fortunate we really are.
–We are blessed to live in a great nation. No country is perfect, but America continues to offer extraordinary opportunities, generosity, and freedom. It’s easy to focus on what is wrong and forget everything right. Gratitude grows when we stop taking our blessings for granted. I am a boy from Sierra Vista, Arizona. I built a Fantastic Life here in Arizona because I was born in the USA.
–We are showing the world what American hospitality looks like. The greatest ambassadors of our country aren’t politicians—they’re ordinary people. Welcoming visitors with kindness says far more about America than any headline ever could. Character is revealed in how we treat people who are different from us.
–Travel helps you discover the real world—not the one on your phone. Headlines often create fear; experiences create understanding. Every trip reminds us that people are much more than their politics or stereotypes. Travel expands perspective, builds empathy, and leaves us better than when we started. I have now been travelling for over 40 years. Seeing the world has changed me. It has also made me appreciate being a citizen of the USA even more.
I am blessed to be an American, and I hope every visitor leaves our country feeling the same warmth and kindness that has made this nation so special.
The Fantastic Life Rule: #3
Build Your Resumes Every Year
Every trip you take should add something to your life resume. New friendships. New cultures. New perspectives. New appreciation. The more experiences you collect, the harder it becomes to judge people you’ve never met or places you’ve never been.
Friday Forward – Open Arms
What thousands of visiting soccer fans are reminding us about the difference between a country and its government.
By: Robert Glazer
July 2nd 2026
On the night of June 14, a bagpipe playing, kilt-wearing parade of roughly five thousand Scottish soccer fans marched through Boston. Scotland had just won its first World Cup match in nearly thirty years, and they were celebrating with special Scotland themed Red Sox game at the legendary Fenway Park. The Red Sox printed special jerseys, taught the organist Scottish songs, and put a kilt on the mascot.
Boston was hardly prepared for the celebration the Scots brought. By the end of the week the Scottish fans, dubbed the Tartan Army, had taken over the bars, drained the city’s kegs, and brought Fenway more joy than it’s seen all year. The Boston locals even shed their typical reserve and fully embraced their enjoyably rambunctious visitors.
What I found most interesting was many of these Scottish visitors acknowledged they were nervous about their trip to the US. Some admitted they nearly didn’t come at all.
They have been absorbing the warnings on social media about our political climate and ICE presence and half-expected hostility at the airport. Instead, they were met with hospitality and kindness. As one Scottish fan put it in a viral video: “The America that we are experiencing right now is the America we were promised growing up.”
This experience wasn’t unique to Boston, or to the Scots. In Lawrence, Kansas, more than five hundred people came to the airport to welcome the Algerian national team. The local high school band learned Algeria’s anthem and played it on the tarmac.
Across the country, visitors have been posting wide-eyed videos of the most ordinary American things: free refills, ice in their sodas, driving a pickup truck, the size of a Walmart, the existence of Buc-ee’s. They are experiencing a warm-hearted cultural exchange.
All of these people are discovering the oldest lesson of travel: a country is not its government, and people are more than their politics.
The news doesn’t make money showing you that. Fear and outrage sell; a stranger giving good directions, or offering a place to sleep, does not. Too often our view of places outside our comfort zone is distorted by sensationalized, negative headlines, broadcast on a loop. We end up afraid of entire countries we have never set foot in, nervous around people we have never met, and less willing to make the connections that make life worth it.
It’s worth remembering that most countries’ leaders today were either elected by a little more than half the population or installed by a regime the people never voted for at all. Yet we routinely act as if a country’s people uniformly support its policies and leaders. We do this selectively, judging some people more harshly than others without even realizing it.
None of this is to say governments don’t matter or policies don’t carry real costs. They do. But the experience of visiting a country is much more about people than it is about policy. This is why I keep coming back to travel as one of the best investments a person can make. You see things in a new light, meet new people, encounter perspectives you wouldn’t have found at home, and even bring some joy to the locals.
The Scots have left Boston, but the lesson from their visit endures. They arrived expecting the country they had seen on a screen and found the one they had long hoped to see. For one summer, the world showed up at our door with a bit of fear and left with a warm feeling toward our people and culture.
It’s a lesson worth remembering the next time we’re sure we already know a place we’ve never really seen.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain