Dear Plant Futures Tribe,

Today I turned 33, and honestly, my heart feels so full it might just burst. I’ve been feeling the kind of joy and energy that keeps me awake at night, in the best way.

Last month, I spent a few days in Puerto Vallarta for one of my best friends’ birthdays, Daniel. After the celebration, I stayed an extra night alone. I journaled by the ocean for hours, processing the changes happening in my life. In that stillness, something clicked. I felt a kind of clarity I hadn’t realized I was searching for. A radical realignment.

The world feels incredibly heavy right now. And yet, what’s carried me through is the abundant joy, intimacy, and community I’ve been lucky to experience these past few months. Love, I’m learning, is not just a feeling. It’s a force. A form of resistance. A well of strength.

Over the last three months, something big has shifted in me. The kind that doesn’t arrive with fireworks but lands with quiet certainty. Life isn’t just good, it’s great. I feel alive and aligned. An alignment I hadn’t known was possible.

Watching Plant Futures grow this quickly has been humbling and beyond what I imagined.

We’re on the verge of 100 student chapters. Last week, we launched a new course that I’m co-teaching with one of my best friends, Darleen, and our students are phenomenal. They’re changemakers building their dreams into their lives. I see it every day in the way they show up.

I’ve been speaking at conferences and in places I never thought I’d reach. This weekend I’m headed to Istanbul and the week after, I’m headed to Africa. And maybe the most surreal part? I’ve started getting invited to music festivals to tell stories about plant-centric food systems and sustainability. If you know me, you know how wild that is. Electronic music has profoundly shaped my life. So has eating plants. Now, somehow, those two worlds are coming together.

It started with EDC Las Vegas. Next up: Lollapalooza in Chicago with my colleague and one of my best friends, Eric, and then we’re off to Deep Tropics in Nashville. Eric and I keep asking each other, are we dreaming? Maybe we are. Or maybe we’re finally living the lives we were meant to, finding the others, and building the world we want to live in.

When I got invited to cover EDC, one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world, and had the chance to interview the first DJ I ever saw live, my mentor Will Rosenzweig said:

He’s right. Life unfolds in the most beautiful ways when you live from your values and lean into the things you love.

But I want to be honest, getting to this point wasn’t easy. Right before this shift, I went through one of the hardest chapters of my life. I lost my grandmother. I lost people I loved and trusted. There were days it felt like the universe was crumbling around me. I hit rock bottom.

Going through that moment to reach this one was the rhythm I could either deny or painfully embrace. That’s how life works sometimes. It hurts, you suffer, and then, somehow, you emerge stronger. In the midst of that pain, I realized something powerful: I don’t just have a good support system. I have an exceptional one. I have friends and a community who show up without question, who stay when things hurt, who remind me who I am when I forget. In those moments, you learn who’s really with you and who never really was. And that clarity, that truth, is a gift.

I feel free. Energized. Surrounded by people who lift me up. Old friends who feel like soul family. New ones who’ve shown up in beautiful, unexpected ways. Work that feels like play. A mission that lights me up every day.

Last month in Mexico City, I connected deeply with a new friend named Jaryd - an entrepreneur from Australia with a contagious joy for life. Since we met, we’ve had hours-long conversations about everything I’ve been feeling.

He broke it down so simply, and I want to share it with you:

Do more of what you love, and life gets better. Work gets better. You get better. Lean in. Have fun. Let go of what drains you. And don’t hold back your joy, it’s meant to be shared. Another thing he said that stuck with me:

That’s exactly how I feel. I’ve gone through a deep re-alignment,
and life is blooming because of it.

This year is extra special, January marked 20 years of eating only plants.

In July, in celebration of my birthday and this milestone, I’ll be launching a new project:

*Plant Based Feast in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca*

“20 Lessons from 20 Years Eating Only Plants”. It’s hard to put into words just how much this path has given me physically, emotionally, spiritually. It’s changed everything.

Hopefully these learnings that I share can help inspire you to see the potential for joy that can emerge for you too. When you choose alignment, when you choose compassion, when you choose plants.

So I invite you to come along for the ride. Follow the lessons, reflect on your own journey, share them with someone who might need a little light. Whether you're plant-curious, plant-powered, or just here for the dancing, there’s something here for you. Let’s grow together.

Because here’s what I believe:

Eat more plants. Dance more. Have more fun.
Release what’s not right for you, whether that’s a relationship, a job, or a way of eating that you know deep down is harming your body, your soul, or the planet.
You know when something’s off. Trust that. And when you let it go? Life opens.

We all deserve alignment. We all deserve joy. And we all have a role in easing each other’s burdens.

When someone is suffering, it’s our business.
When you feel joy, share it.
When you find your tribe, invite others in.

And thank you.

To my best friends (you know how much I love you because I never stop saying it).
To my team, who’ve become my second family.
To our students, mentors, funders, you are the reason Plant Futures has come this far, and the fuel that keeps us going.

And especially my family and my parents - the most beautiful humans and the reason Plant Futures exists today. You supported me from Day 1, the moment I decided to stop eating animals when I was 12, and I’m forever grateful.

This work takes a village. I’m lucky to have found mine.
And I’d love to welcome you into it.

I’m also excited to finally share something I’ve been working on for months:
my new website and personal newsletter.

It’s where I’ll be sharing more personal reflections from the road, lessons from 20 years of eating plants, travel stories, wellness hacks and tips, digital nomad life, and what I’m learning on and off the dance floor.

If that speaks to you, I’d love to have you along: 👉 [samanthaderrick.com]

The 20 Lessons in 20 Years campaign drops soon on my website and newsletter - and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Thank you for walking, dancing, and planting alongside me.

And I’ll leave you with this Yung Pueblo quote I stumbled on about July energy, from my favorite author. Simple, but profound. Somehow, he always knows exactly what I need to hear, exactly when I need to hear it:

Here’s to blooming with purpose, holding close what matters, and living each moment as if it’s a miracle, because it is.

With love and plants,

Samantha

33 Years Of Life, Plants, and Purpose

Plant-Powered Pathways #122