Travel Makes One Modest

Gustave Flaubert once said, “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” Those words aren’t hard to understand. Modesty, itself, means being unassuming. It means accepting your limitations, being unpretentious, and humbly acknowledging the limit of your abilities.

Why does modesty relate to travel?

Think about it. When you travel, you become exposed to different cultures and literally see just how vast the world is. If you simply confine yourself to the four corners of your home, you close your mind off to the idea, albeit unconsciously, of just how big the world is out there. However, once you step out of your home and travel around the world, you acknowledge that there is, after all, a bigger world beyond what you’re accustomed to.

Realizing How Big the World Truly Is

As your plane lifts off the ground and ascends to the sky, you think that everything below you has gotten smaller, but have they? In reality, you’re given somewhat of a bird’s eye-view of the world. It should be enough to make you realize that you are but a speck of matter on the earth. The world, for all intents and purposes, is bigger than you’ll ever be. It has more to offer than anyone ever could.

You may have accomplished a lot either in school or at work. You may be the richest person in the world. You may be everything you’ve ever desired to be. However, at the end of the day, there is a more powerful persona out there who created the world and everything in it, including you. That same persona placed you in one minute portion of the world, and that’s enough to underscore the fact that the world can engulf you if it wills it to.

 Eye-opening Experiences

Once you travel, you’ll see a world beyond what you know and what you expect. Travel is a truly eye-opening experience. Not only will you learn about different cultures and traditions in the process. You also become privy to the rich history of each place you visit. Travelling lay your soul bare to the wonders of creation. By the time you get back home, you embrace the truth that you are merely an iota of the world’s grandeur.

That’s probably one of the reasons why I travel as much as I can. I have long accepted the fact that I can never be bigger than the world I live in, and instead of wallowing in misery, I’ve chosen to embrace the world for what it is – a vast, live picture book that I can explore thanks to the opportunity of travel. Case in point: snorkelling vacations.

Under the Sea

Believe it or not, there are rivers in Austria where you can go snorkeling with the family. Under the sea, you come face-to-face with awesome sea creatures and other creations you never knew existed! It makes for a humbling experience, seeing how God carefully created each one and knowing that each was created with a purpose and not just to please a snorkeler’s eyes.

Snorkeling is even best enjoyed if you do it with your kids. The Bahamas and Caribbean are endowed with good weather all-year round. The waters are turquoise to deep blue, with peaceful coves, reefs and abundant marine resources in broad spectrum of bright tropical colors and all sorts of comfortable hotels and resorts from cheap lodging inns to luxurious cabanas and villas.

Best for Snorkelling

Some spots that can make great snorkeling destinations in the Bahamas are Flamingo Tongue Reef, Poseidon’s Point, Cora Gardens. There’s also Rainbow Reef, Columbus Harbor, Columbus Monument and The Caves, and the Long Bar on this list. On the other hand, the Caribbean’s best snorkeling spots are Anse Chastanet in Sta Lucia, Glover’s Atol in Belize, Sunset House in Grand Cayman, and Sunset Waters in Curacao. One can also splurge in the world’s bests like the Virgin Gorda, Loblolly Bay and Trunk Bay in the British Virgin Islands, and Sea and Discover in Bonaire.

There is indeed a long list of wonderful marine parks and coral reefs to see, all teeming with amazing marine life. This is proof that the marine environment occupy more than 70 percent of the planet. Even the littlest shell in the ocean is enough to make you humbly recognize the enormity of the world as compare to your existence.

Travel makes one modest

So travel as much as you can, as often as you can, travel solo if you may. There is a whole lot of unexplored world before you, and you only get one shot at life. Travel makes one modest, see the world for yourself. Work, save, and travel. It will all be worth it.