When my family decided to go to Disney World for our family vacation, I was certainly excited for the trip. I expected to enjoy my time there, ride a few rides and soak up some nostalgia while I was at it. However, I found an experience far better than I considered possible, especially at my age. Here are just a few of the things I learned on this vacation.

I am a child at heart.

Sure, nostalgia had something to do with it, but it was certainly something far beyond the rides and games that brought me to truly love my time there. It's not as simple as one reason, though I would say that my age was the biggest factor with a few things wrapped into that. As a college student, between 10 years ago -- when my family last went to Disney -- and now, my mental maturity has vastly increased. I can understand why Disney World is such an amazing place beyond Mickey Mouse and the thrill of the Tower of Terror. Yet my emotional maturity is that of a young child. My emotions are influenced as easily as anyone. So I don't think that I could've chosen a better time to go back.

Walt Disney was the man.

As a young adult, I now understand how awesome Walt Disney was as a man. Seriously, the dude is an inspiration to me, and should be to everyone. His life work exemplifies making your dreams come true. When he had ideas, he figured out how to make them a reality. He didn't just talk about it, he didn't just pass it along to someone else to take care of. He made that idea come to life. Disney World is absolutely a culmination of his life. The characters walking around are all inspired by his original thinking. The rides and shows literally bring his thinking to life, immersing you in his dreams that have come true. And now I understand why that place is so magnificent. It is full of imagination, thinking and dreaming that has all come to life. The feelings produced in us when we see all there is to see at Disney aren't empty emotions. They are emotions fueled by one man's dreams being realized, and that feeling is one we should desire for ourselves, along with everyone else.

We need innovation.

A recurring theme throughout every park in Disney World is the talk of innovation. It seems like Walt Disney lived in the perfect time for someone like him. His work with cartoons was one of his first claims to fame. "Steamboat Willie," as you may know, is a black and white cartoon starring Disney's original icon Mickey Mouse. This cartoon was the first to have synchronized sound and animation. In other words, when Mickey moved his mouth to whistle, sound came out the moment he did. And when steam came from his boat, you heard the fog horn sound. At the time, it was incredible. People gathered at theaters to watch these simple, yet amazing works of animation. Disney even developed a method of creating the illusion of three-dimensional animation far beyond his time. They would stack frames on top of each other, a few feet apart, to create real depth that appeared in the final product.

At the time, if you didn't know, they took pictures of images that were drawn or painted, physically putting these frames together to create a cartoon. Disney World in itself is an incredible work of innovation! I'm sure that when Walt presented this massive idea for a theme park, there were so many people telling him that it was too big, that it was a money pit, and that it would never be worth the investment. Well, he proved every one of them wrong. Besides, the reason he made this incredibly magical place was not to make money. He created it for you and I, to inspire us to be just as creative and innovative, and to get kids dreaming bigger than ever.

The "wishes" and "dreams" mumbo-jumbo isn't as silly as I once thought.

In the Magic Kingdom, every single night, Disney puts on a spectacular fireworks show, themed around wishes. Throughout the show, Jiminy Cricket spits a ton of talk about wishes coming true if you believe hard enough and telling you to never stop wishing. As a child, it all sounds magical and fantastic. As an adult, it might sound like garbage that's only nice when you're a kid.

I gave some thought to the ideas of dreams and wishes. Is it not the case that everything you see around you at Disney World all stems from dreams and wishes? I'm sure that it was one of Walt's greatest wishes to create the magical world that I got to experience last week. And by wishing and dreaming beyond what most people thought possible, he achieved something remarkably incredible. And not just in Disney World, but in everything that man did! Their show tells us that if we believe in our hearts, any wish we have can come true. Without that mentality, Walt wouldn't have accomplished half of what he did in his life. He dreamed bigger than anyone and believed that anything he thought of could be a reality if he tried to make it so. That's what his life is full of -- making his wishes and dreams come true.

What Disney is teaching kids is honestly a foundation that is excellent for them later in life. If we all believe that anything we wish or dream up can become reality, then we will be that much more motivated to make them come to fruition. Though the kids don't know it now, they are learning to dream big in order to innovate later.

You may think I'm looking too far into everything about Disney World. However, I encourage you to look at Walt Disney's life, and tell me that he didn't intend every one of us to be as inspired as he was. I know that Disney World is just one of many ways he is able to pass along his wonderful outlook on life and his admirable drive to progress our world as we move into the future.