WHY

At age five, you are expected to ask, “Why?” Why is the grass green? Why is the sky blue? Why can’t I have five cookies? Why is the monkey at the zoo locked in a tiny cage? Why doesn’t he or she have any friends? Why does that boy talk and act funny? 

At age twenty-one, you are aren’t exactly expected to answer, “Because” to all of the naïve wonders of childhood, but you definitely aren’t expected to still be searching for solutions to the exact same questions.

I stayed up all night.  I was intrigued by the amazing colors of the ocean.  The most beautiful shades of blue one can ever imagine.  The different colors, though, brought those silly questions to my mind that really don’t seem so silly anymore… I watched the sun setting in the west over the Atlantic Ocean from the sixth deck of the MV Explorer.  When the sun was going down, the water was royal blue.  In the pitch dark of the night I stood on the edge looking at the waves created by the ship.  The water was a deep teal, almost black.  From the front of the ship, as the sun rose in the east, the ocean seems lighter blue, nearly grey. I have been told the sky is blue because light reflects off the blue oceans. Then why does the ocean change colors? Is it because of the sky changing colors? Or are the sky and the ocean completely separate things and neither depends on the other to be colored how it is…

Over the time of this voyage around the world, I know I will be leaping into the past, remembering when I asked my family or friends a classic question any five-year-old would ask…  As I travel the world, I will probably find answers to most, if not all, of these crazy questions.  But now when I really sit and think about it, I realize there really is no such thing as a stupid question.  Because it is those questions, the incredible answers to them, and the interesting journey to find the answers that makes the best of experiences.