Emptiness is extremely eerie. It leaves you wondering about a whole other world that you know must be out there, even if you are blind to it. While on vacation this summer, I was consumed by these eerie thoughts and feelings. When you witness such a large expanse of nature’s stunning work, it makes you realize how small you are, compared to the seemingly never-ending beauty around you.
   

This past summer my family and I traveled to the Southwest USA and spent time in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Not one of the towns we stayed in failed to amaze me. For a week and half we lived like nomads. Only staying a night or two in each town and living out of a suitcase. It was exhilarating, to fully experience a place and then just pick up everything and go. The satisfaction and pure happiness that I felt at the end of each of our adventures was just the beginning.
   

116 degrees fahrenheit was a bit of a climate change for us New Yorkers. The second I opened the car door, it felt like someone was holding a giant heater in front of me. The incredulous heat smacked into my body with such force, I was unable to breath for a moment. I stepped out of the car into the blazing sun, and through squinted eyes, I saw that we were parked on what seemed like the top of the world. I suddenly felt a hundred feet tall and could see all the colorful rock that jutted out from “Rainbow Vista.” I turned around and there was a sign sticking out of the brilliant orange sand that read “Welcome to the Valley of Fire”. It is a very appropriate name, considering I felt like I was standing in a fire. I lifted my phone to take a picture of the cartoon-like orange sand, ridiculously shaped rocks, and the horizon of mountains, but when I looked at the screen a message told me that my phone had overheated and I couldn’t use it. I had only been outside of the pleasant, soothing, air conditioning of the car for five minutes! Meanwhile, the sun’s powerful rays beating down on me were starting to take effect, so we decided that a mini ten minute hike would do. We passed several signs warning us that the “temperature is at a dangerous level and hiking is not encouraged”. Used to a home with cold and snow for a good part of the year, we were astonished at the weather we were experiencing. Although the extreme heat was interesting, it was time to get on the road again and head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, where the weather would be much more bearable.
   

The Grand Canyon is the most spectacular view I have ever laid eyes on, and I imagine that it affected others the way it did me. Once we found the small log cabin we were going to be staying in, we went down to the main lodge to check out the view. I walked out onto the side deck that reached over the canyon wall and looked out in utter amazement. It was as if the beautiful structure carved by nature stretched on forever. There was rock as far as I could see. I was eventually able to tear my eyes away from the view to glance at the faces around me, and they too were in awe. Seeing such a large vastness is absolutely captivating. It can make you freeze mid-step, mid-sentence, and mid-thought. It puts you in a trance and allows you to be alone with your thoughts, or to be in total peace with no thought disturbing your vacant mind. I finally forced myself to not just stare, but really look, out into the canyon, and I instantly felt smaller. It wasn’t that I felt crushed, I just felt irrelevant. Everything I was worrying about before, like what I was wearing, and what people thought about me, seemed to disappear. Once I opened my mind to see how big the world is, I realized none of those things matter. Why would anyone want to talk to me, when there are places as amazing as the Grand Canyon out there to explore. This thought excited me and I knew I didn’t want to waste another second, so I dragged my family away from the viewing deck and down the closest trail. This trail eventually led to a smaller platform with very thin railings and, if it’s possible, an even more outstanding view. I was simply ecstatic for the rest of our trip. I never wanted to go home, and why would I when there is so much more out there to see and experience?
   

I believe that it takes a truly amazing sight to make you feel something deep down, and to make you change your perspective. I want to travel our wide world and see what else it has to teach me about myself. All things considered, I now see how small I am compared to what nature has created for us to explore.