Most people who don’t travel often have some eye opening experience or some existential realization. My recent travel story is a bit different than the average though.

This past week, I went to my favorite place: the bay area of California. I’ve been visiting this exact area since I was an itty bitty baby, and it amazes me more and more every time. The water surrounding the bay area is the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen, San Francisco always takes my breath away both day and night when it’s lit up more than the Vegas strip and the mountains are full of beautiful redwoods as tall as the empire state building. I can honestly go on and on all day about the breath taking bay area, but my travel story for this trip didn’t happen in California.

This particular trip was rough, considering I had bronchitis the entire time. I hated being miserable in my favorite place, but I had as much fun as I could. Despite the fun I had with my family, I couldn’t wait to get home because I just wanted warm air and my cat. So naturally on the plane ride home, I was trying to get some sleep so it would go by much quicker. I didn’t sleep much, so I spent the last half of the flight just looking out of the window. I suddenly saw this huge city lit up beautifully.

I knew we were close to the airport, so I was trying to figure out what city could be this big and beautiful so close to home. I eventually came to the conclusion that we were literally descending to the airport and that I was looking at West Palm Beach. I knew it was a good size city, but I never thought about it as being anything special. I couldn’t help but sit and think about the numerous times I had been there, even the short time I lived there, and all I could remember was an average beat up city. At this point, my brain was working quickly minus the lack of sleep and I had my existential realization.

I started thinking to myself on the ground level West Palm is boring and average, just like me. Apparently though, there is so much of West Palm that I don’t know about and so much beauty that you can’t see when you’re just passing through. Then I realized: we’re all little West Palm’s.

There’s a lot about ourselves that we don’t know yet, especially being so young. We are so full of thoughts and ideas that probably just haven’t been provoked yet. You could find the cure for cancer, or you could end wars, or you could be the next president. You never know what you could be and how bright you will shine.

We also only see ourselves at ground level, and it takes a while to see the beauty from that low if you ever see it at all. Who does see the beauty though, are the people around and outside of us. They see all of our best features when they are around just like I saw all the beautiful lights when I was flying into West Palm. You’re a big city that they’re choosing to fly into.

My message here is to do your best to remember that you are a big beautiful city. It’s hard to see the beauty in something when you’re just at ground level, so you’re going to be critical and call yourself boring and average. Remember though, that the people outside of you and around you are flying into your life like little airplanes, and they can see the twinkly lights you can’t always see. Trust your friends and loved ones when they give you praise; you are a thousand twinkly lights to them.

Also, please travel. The physical twinkly lights are beautiful just like you.