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In this life update, I’m sharing everything that’s changed over the past few months. From being solo again to starting a completely new chapter, this season of life has pushed me to grow in ways I never expected. I’ve been quietly working on something massive behind the scenes: writing my first book! Preorder begins May 15th, 5pm UK time: https://www.jaypalfrey.com Follow my journey here: Instagram: www.instagram.com/itsjaypalfrey Topics in this video: • becoming an author • writing my first book • solo travel & personal growth • starting over in life • life update 2026 • healing & self improvement • navigating change • building a new future • creativity & discipline • documenting my journey Thank you for being here and supporting this new chapter of my life. More videos are coming soon. Subscribe to follow the journey. #LifeUpdate #SoloTravel #SelfImprovement #AuthorJourney #WritingABook #PersonalGrowth #NewChapter #Vlog #TravelVlog #BecomingAnAuthor
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Honestly, a lot has changed in my life over the past few months
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Some things I expected, some things completely blindsided me. But I've been travelling, figuring things out, and making big decisions, and trying to understand what I actually want next
0:24
I feel like I've been living a hundred different lives at once. So in this video, I want to sit you down, be real with you and talk about everything that's been happening behind the scenes
0:34
Hello everyone, this is Jay. I come into you from a brand new country, somewhere I honestly never imagined myself coming to so early on in my life
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But, Alhamdulillah, an amazing opportunity came up and I find myself here in Iceland
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I'm in Reykjavik and there's been so much happening in my personal life, my work life, my travel life
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So much so that I need to make a catch up video with all of you because there has been so much going on and this channel has kind of taken a backseat, especially over the last year and a half
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And there's a lot of amazing videos coming up. So I wanted to preface those videos with an introduction back onto the channel to say kind of why I've been away
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I haven't actually just arrived in Iceland. I've spent the last six days here exploring the beautiful country and that will be in next week's video
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and I promise you it's going to be a video that might be one of my favorites that I've ever made
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This country is naturally stunning and it's a country that I've always dreamed about coming to
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It's a bucket list country for me and I can't wait to show you that video
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But in this video I want to explain to you everything that's been going on. So if you like sit down videos this is the video for you
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If you don't I will probably skip this video and stay tuned for the Iceland video coming next Saturday
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So I want to introduce you to the main reason as to why I haven't been on this channel so much and it's right here in my hands
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Six years ago I left the UK, I left my muted English coast and I left on a journey in search of something deeper and a lot more meaningful than the life I had
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At the time I thought I was simply booking flights, travelling to new destinations and visiting amazing cool places
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But what I didn't realize is that over the last six years, I was slowly stepping into a version of myself that I hadn't even met yet
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Every unfamiliar street, every early train ride, every new city that I was exploring was slowly expanding my world
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And that became the foundation of this novel. I traveled so much searching for inspiration
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But what I found was perspective. There's so much of life that is lived outside of familiarity, outside of the conventional boxes that you're brought up in
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outside of the same routines and outside of the version of myself I had outgrown
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This book here was written in those moments that have changed me slowly and permanently
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You know, I thought an adventure would feel wild and, you know, loud
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but most transformations happen in quiet moments, in small conversations that never made it online
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in cafes, in mountain towns, especially in Pakistan. You know, these moments really changed my life
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and taught me how to learn to trust the unknown. There are thousands of memories behind my photos
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and videos that I post online, but the most important ones for me were never posted
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They were never posted online. They lived in fleeting conversations, in moments of stillness, in unexpected encounters
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and the feeling of becoming someone new while standing on the opposite end of the world
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Without realizing it, every place that I went to, every unexpected conversation I was slowly gathering fragments of a story which is here In mountain towns in a crowded street late night bus rides long flights
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I found pieces of humanity that stayed with me long after the journey had ended
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And eventually those fragments I embodied into this piece of work and this piece of writing
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Travel gave me more than experiences, it gave me clarity. It showed me how much beauty is held within uncertainty and how transformative it can be to start again over and over and over in completely different places around the world
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This book right here is an attempt to preserve those memories, those conversations, those fleeting memories and have it with me for a lifetime
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It's been a very special process. It's been a process which I've absolutely loved going through
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So I have encountered such phenomenal things over the last six years and it all comes down to shared humanity and that shared humanity is written inside
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What started as a journey across the world actually became a really strong journey within myself
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I want to read the blurb for you just to give you an idea of what the story is about
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George leaves behind a muted life on the English coast and steps into a world that feels suddenly vivid
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Following an urge he can't quite explain, he begins in Abil, where dust-lit streets, warm-hearted strangers and a city moving to its own quiet rhythm starts to change the way he sees
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His journey carries him further east into the mountains of Pakistan and later to the layered intensity of Beirut and beyond
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Each place offering its own lesson in stillness, generosity and self-discovery What begins as escape becomes a quiet awakening, a journey that shows how a sense of belonging can take root the moment you trust yourself enough to walk into the unfamiliar
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The Soul That Wandered East traces a quiet transformation shaped by travel, curiosity and the subtle grace of human connection
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offering a story that unfolds not through drama, but through the way a life changes when someone finally pays attention
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So, my novel, The Soul That Wandered East, will be yours September 10th, 2026
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I'll put all the details down in the description box I can't wait for this to be yours
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and one thing I'm very excited about is I will be taking this on tour
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I will be going on a world book tour to 10 different cities across the world
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much more details to follow soon thank you so much for all the love
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the support, the kindness and the hospitality, generosity I've received over the last 6 years
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all of those stories have become this and I can't wait for you to read it
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this is completely fine actually i want to make youtube videos uh from every province that i go to as well as i want to
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post as much as i can on instagram these areas that you sent me uh from china most most tourists
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will never go to and actually i'm i love the deep rooted culture and history in these areas of china
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so you know i want to show my audience everything that i have from that area so 100 i want to post
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as much as I can. As you guys can tell, I am not in Iceland anymore
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I've arrived to somewhere a lot more green. I'm currently in a park. It's just rained for a really long time
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and it's really cold. So if that gives you one clue to where I am, it's probably the best clue
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I am back in London. I'm here just for two days before I fly off
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on another two-month-long adventure across five different countries. But I want to finish this video here
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There's a lot I want to talk about still and this Friday the book comes out. I'm really excited
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It been a year and a half long adventure for this book to come out So I really excited for that It always so crazy coming back to London for me because you know I left this country and this city six years ago now six years ago next month
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And it's been a whirlwind adventure. I've been on such a journey, not just the countries
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but obviously within myself, I've changed so much as a human being in the last six years
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One journey I'm very proud of. and you know people always ask me what what made you leave and i mean the situation here in the uk
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has got a lot worse since 2020 when i left but back in 2020 it was scarier for me to stay
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in the same position i was in rather than leave and despite the risk being so huge the risk being
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the biggest risk i ever took in my life so far you know to leave into the unknown knowing nothing
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about what could happen i didn't have a job you know i only had a few hundred pounds in my bank
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account and i was staying in hostels when i left i was eating street food i was spending as little
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money as i possibly could during this time and uh hi friend the pigeons here in london are so big
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i like dogs um yeah i mean the risk was huge but that risk ended up changing my life
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so I always say to people I get this question a lot is how can I do this how can I how can I
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you know change my life and the only thing I can say to you is take that risk you know it might not
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work out but that risk could potentially like in my case turn out to be the best decision you've
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ever taken in your life and uh yeah what a journey it's been what a journey it's been
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I've traveled all across the world I've made a career out of being a content creator a videographer
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a photographer i'm now an author i'm so excited for the book to come out on friday i'll put the
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links down in the description box for you if you wanted to pre-order i'm so excited it's been
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probably one of the greatest adventures of my life writing this so there's so many stories so
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many incredible journeys that i've taken that you can find within this book you know all of these
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stories of meeting people in cafes having those conversations that never made it on camera and
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there's some really heartfelt stories within here and i want this story to be the baseline for
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people's views on these countries that they travel to you know there's a lot of stories
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from pakistan a lot of stories from lebanon a lot of stories from saudi and yeah i want people
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to read this and kind of get into the head that these people are human and these people are
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beautiful people and kind people and the stories within here really are just so heartwarming
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and these are experiences that I experienced in real life and yeah thinking back on this time
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on these times the times that I still experienced these days every single day I'm traveling in these
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countries you know I'm just met with kindness and it feels good I'm currently here in Kensington
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Gardens in central London and as you can see it is beautiful this is one thing I love about London
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is having all the green spaces and this makes me miss London and then I think about the weather
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right now it's really cold and it was raining for the last two hours
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I just took a meeting for a really exciting project in China next month
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I am really excited for this I always dreamt you know, six years ago when I left
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that I could be able to travel you know, take meetings on the go and you know be able to work with companies all across the world and this is what happened and I can only thank God for this Alhamdulillah I feeling really good
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I feel refreshed, I feel excited for the future there's a lot of things coming up
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which I can't wait to share with you The world I feel over the last
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few months especially but honestly the last couple of years has just been so turbulent
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it's been a rollercoaster especially in the places that I always travel to
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I found myself very disconnected from the world and I think that has played into the part of
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why I've been away so much and also I was in a situation that wasn't
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the correct plan for me and that's why I left in life
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despite it feeling good at the start when it doesn't feel good at the end
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you have to make a radical choice to change your life and I'm happy I did
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And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, just because it was a hard choice to make
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I still firmly believe that it was the right choice to make. And in life, in life, these choices, despite them being hard
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if they're the right choice for you, it should be done. And this is just a human experience
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This is the human experience that you have to try and enjoy, honestly
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because people are so scared of these emotions, of being angry, sad, emotional
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These are experiences that you have to experience as a human being. It's all part of life
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And you have to go into the idea of love with the acceptance that it could end
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And it doesn't mean it's a failure. It just means that it could be a lesson
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And that's how I always take my life. I treat everything in my life as an experience
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And it makes life a lot. I wouldn't say easier, but it makes life a lot more meaningful to look at
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Over the next few months, I have some incredibly exciting projects to work on
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and some really exciting countries that I'm traveling to in just a couple of days
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In one and a half days, actually, from now, I'm leaving London and I'm heading back to Turkey for six days
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And then I'm heading, Alhamdulillah, back to Pakistan because I'm heading to an area which I've always dreamed of going to
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As you guys know, I have two provinces left in Pakistan. and one of them is about to be completed so i am really excited for this and then straight after
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that i'll be heading to eastern europe southeastern europe for something really exciting i don't know
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how many times i can keep saying exciting but honestly that's how i feel right now i feel i feel
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so good and so ready to be exploring these beautiful countries that i haven't been to yet
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and then as you heard in the meeting in june i'll be heading to china for a two-week project
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Travelling across seven different projects. And then, as you heard earlier in June, I'll be heading to China to explore seven different provinces
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which are some of the most culturally rich in the country. And then I'll be heading to Bosnia in July
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July 1st until July 10th. And, yeah, I mean, as it stands, this is a really exciting period of my life
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And a really exciting period for me to be making a lot of videos back on this channel
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So I'm going to leave this video here. I need to get editing the Iceland video because that is the next video coming your way
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Please let me know also how you are. How are you feeling in this world? How are you going in your daily life? You know what's happening around the world where you are
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I would love to hear from you and I will reply to you in the comments. Thank you so much. See you from London. I'll see you next time in Turkey
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Thank you so much for watching. See you next time
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