Every so often the phrase “It’s a small world” pops into a conversation. Every time I hear it, I can’t help but disagree. This world is huge. There are 196 countries in the world. Approximately 7,404,976,783 human beings live on earth. There are so many people from different walks of life, how could one believe we live in a small world? There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken across the globe. Learning all those languages would be an extremely arduous task. Perhaps, an individual can speak three languages fluently. That still leaves 5,997 languages a mystery to said individual's mind. Therefore, that means 5,997 other people that person cannot verbally communicate with. By no means am I saying we all should sit down and learn all 6,500 languages; it is simply a comparison to how vast the human race really is. Our lives are one out of 7,404,976,783, that seems rather small but out of all those people, you are one of them. All the lives possible and the universe gave one to you. I hope that makes you feel special. Our world has so much to offer. Saying it’s small does not do it justice. Every person you meet is a little piece of history and so are you. The world is huge, and it’s yours to explore.

Think about Lewis and Clark. Two explorers very important to the finding of western America. They found almost 300 species unknown to science on their expedition and the Rocky Mountains. And to think, that was right here in the U.S. They did not even have to the leave the continent to make new discoveries. The United States, alone, is just under four million miles. Personally, I have never met anyone who has covered a majority of those miles and it would take many years on the road to earn that title. However, there are plenty of people who never stop exploring. Some dedicate their lives to living out of backpacks. They write and photograph their adventures to share with anyone who will listen. I think that is so important. We should never settle or stop craving the unknown. Moreover, the ocean takes up more surface area than the land. 70 percent of earth is ocean. Humans have only discovered five percent of it. Five percent! That is 95 percent of something larger than us, unexplored. We have no idea what resides there. There could be a whole colony of mermaids living somewhere deep down under the sea and we have no idea.

That ties right back into the phrase I believe is so very false, “it’s a small world”. Our world is anything but small. Perhaps mermaids are real and they’re living hundreds of miles under sea level right off the coast of Florida, speaking their mermaid language. That would add another language to collection of 6,500 languages in the world. Furthermore, making this world even bigger. I understand that sounds a bit far fetched, but so did landing on the moon and it happened. Humans also figured out how to build a three-dimensional printer and print someone a new hand, so is anything really too far fetched?