Would You Go?

It was New Year’s Eve 2022, and Cole Sjoholm was seated in front of a slot machine in Black Hawk, Colorado. He was fresh out of a relationship and looking forward to 2023 when his phone pinged with a message. It was from Krystie, a friend who knew about his love of travel — Sjoholm is an avid cruise-goer and adventure hound — and she wanted to know if he’d seen the videos of the Drake Passage that were trending on TikTok. His response was something along the lines of, “No, but I’ve heard of it.” She then asked if he’d ever been to Antarctica. “No,” he replied again with an internal chuckle. “Would you go?” she responded. “I paused for about thirty-five seconds and replied, ‘Yes!’” Sjoholm said.

Having already booked a trip to Australia to celebrate his upcoming birthday and a trip to Europe to explore his ancestral roots, Sjoholm had decided 2023 was going to be a big year for personal travel long before Krystie’s fateful text popped up on his screen. However, as he thought about what she said, a grandiose plan began taking shape in his head. “What she didn’t know at that exact moment was that my mind was working in overdrive,” said Sjoholm. “Since Australia and Europe were already on the calendar, adding Antarctica meant I’d also have to visit South America. Then I thought, ‘If I’m going to do all of that in one year, I might as well add Asia and Africa and set foot on all seven continents.’"

While Sjoholm understood his budding plan was impulsive, he says he isn’t one to do things halfheartedly, instead calling himself someone who goes all-in. “Being ‘all-in’ can be both positive and negative, but once I make a decision, I work hard to follow through no matter what area of life we’re talking about,” he said.

So, returning to that casino in Blackhawk, Colorado, Sjoholm explained that the concept of stepping foot on all seven continents in a single calendar year, “felt completely logical in that moment.”

True to his all-in mentality, now that the idea was planted, Sjoholm wasn’t about to give himself the opportunity to back out. He immediately started researching travel options that very same night, jotting his findings on a sheet of paper and reviewing them at the casino buffet where he feasted on crab and prime rib. Giddy with excitement, Sjoholm wrote in his book, “Filling My Bucket: A Year of Solo Travel Across Seven Continents,” that he “went to bed, slept like a baby, and awoke the next morning and emailed my travel agent.”

Upon receiving his next-level request, Sjoholm’s travel agent sent a speedy reply reading, “Are you sure? You want to book and pay the deposits on all of this travel before you leave?” Despite the fact he was set to fly to Miami on January 5 for his first vacation of the year, Sjoholm assured her, yes, he was sure. “Once the deposits were paid, it became a form of accountability. I was going to do it, and I was going to do it solo,” he wrote. By the evening of January 4, everything was booked.

Seven Continents

“Looking back, the goal to go to all seven continents in a single calendar year was, for lack of a better word, absurd,” wrote Sjoholm. “It’s been called outlandish, lucky, and excessive. It was exactly all that.”

While we won’t recount the whole of his journey here — you’ll have to check out Sjoholm’s book for that — we will share the logistics. First, came North America, as he boarded two cruises out of Miami in January and visited San Francisco in February. Then it was Australia for that epic birthday trip in March. Continent number three was Europe in mid-June through July as Sjoholm sailed across Scandinavia on Celebrity Apex. Africa’s turn came in September, allowing Sjoholm to check a coveted visit to the Seychelles off his list. And then it was Asia in November, a continent he explored via ports in Japan, Taiwan, China and Vietnam before disembarking another Celebrity ship in Singapore.

By the time December rolled around, the end of Sjoholm’s adventure was in sight with only two continents remaining: South America and Antarctica. He arrived in South America first, touring Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls before flying to Ushuaia, Argentina, to board a Viking expedition ship bound for The White Continent. Finally, on December 22, 2023, Sjoholm swung his legs over the side of a Zodiac, joyously completing his whirlwind journey as he took his first triumphant steps onto mainland Antarctica.

“It was my Olympic moment, yet there was no medal ceremony, no cheering crowd and nobody but myself to share in the glory,” he wrote. “I would not have had it any other way.”

Doing It Solo

While Sjoholm made many friends along the way, his commitment to realizing his ambitious travel goal solo is commendable. When asked what he would say to someone who wants to travel solo for the first time, he said: “You don’t know what you’re capable of until you try. … I simply say: ‘Go.’ It doesn’t have to be a grand adventure like mine. Start small.”

Picking up a hobby while going solo can help, too. For Sjoholm, it was photography. “I like to joke that there’s only one lens for a reason,” he said. “(Photography) gave me a sense of purpose while exploring new destinations. It wasn’t about capturing something revolutionary or showing off incredible technical skill—it was about being present.”

“My very first day with my new camera in tow was in San Juan, Puerto Rico … I spotted a man in Plaza de Armas, surrounded by pigeons as he sat on the edge of the fountain,” Sjoholm said. “Unsure of the ‘rules’ of street photography, I approached him, lifted my camera slightly to signal a request, and he gave me the faintest nod. I took a few steps back, snapped one photo, and then quickly rushed away. His small act of kindness in allowing me to take his picture—and the rush of adrenaline I felt from approaching a stranger—was the spark that ignited the fire.”

After the Adventure

Now, with priceless global experience under his belt, it’s no surprise Sjoholm has found himself a new face in the travel industry. “After my travels, an online acquaintance reached out about becoming a travel advisor,” he said. “I worked with a wonderful travel agent to plan my 2023 trips, so I understood the value of having someone guide you through the process. … Many of my former mortgage clients have since become travel clients. They trusted me with financing their homes, and now they trust me with their vacations.”

As we enter 2026, Sjoholm continues to “fill his bucket” by keeping up with the people he’s met across the globe. “Over the past three years, I’ve spent much of my life on cruise ships and developed what I call my ‘cruise family,’” he said. “We plan sailings together, meet up in ports, and even visit one another’s homes. I’ve shared coffees in quiet cafés around the world with friends I met at sea. That bond—rooted in our shared love of travel—is incredibly unique. They understand the ‘travel addiction’ and support my lifestyle and business wholeheartedly. To them, as well as to my lifelong friends and family (my ‘cheerleaders’), I am endlessly grateful.”

Sjoholm will always remember what he achieved in 2023 fondly, but he says the quest truly began in 2012 when he was tasked with creating a vision board. Unsurprisingly, travel was a central theme. “It’s remarkable how many of the destinations and life experiences I’ve since checked off were on that board more than a decade ago,” he said. “When you have a clear vision and defined goals, it becomes easier to align the rest of your life to achieve them. My catalyst was a single question—'Would you go?’—and when the opportunity came, I grabbed it by the horns. My life is better because of that choice. Dreams don’t have to happen all at once, … but taking steps and keeping your vision clear is essential to achieving more than you ever thought was possible.”

Originally appeared in the winter 2025 issue of The Compass magazine