What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the ocean? Is it the color blue? The way sunlight dances on the waves, or that familiar salty smell in the air? Maybe it’s a memory, a sunset at the beach, the sound of laughter, the splash of cold water as you and your friends jumped in, fought the waves, and felt completely free. Or maybe it’s none of that. It doesn’t have to be. When I first sat down to write this, I typed the first sentence and then stopped. I had to think about what the ocean really means to me. So if it takes you a minute to find your own answer, trust me, you’re not alone. 

At first, a lot of things came to mind, the sound of the waves, the endless horizon, the feeling of standing on the shore, but nothing felt quite right. The ocean can mean so many different things depending on how you look at it. When I was a kid, I was actually afraid of it. Or, more specifically, I was scared of seaweed. Those long, stringy, grass-like things floating beneath the surface completely freaked me out. Whenever one brushed against my foot, I’d panic like something alive was trying to pull me down. Silly, right? But back then, it felt real.

The Ocean as Fear and Challenge

You might be wondering why I’m even telling you that. The reason is, I think the ocean, in its own way, represents fear. Not the kind of fear that just makes you scream and run, but the kind that sits deep inside you, the fear of the unknown. Our ancestors feared the ocean too. It was this endless stretch of mystery that could either feed them or swallow them whole. Yet, they still sailed it, crossed it, lived by it. Fear, as strange as it sounds, has always been part of what keeps us moving forward.

As many things as the ocean is, it’s also about challenge, about something bigger than us that we still choose to face. Storms, waves, creatures in the dark, all those things have scared people for as long as we’ve existed. But that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. My childhood fear of seaweed was my small version of that vast fear. The ocean felt alive, unpredictable, like it was reminding me that I wasn’t in control. And honestly, maybe that’s what we need sometimes, something to remind us that we aren’t in control of everything and that we need to adapt to live in certain environments.

Still, no matter how much the ocean humbles or frightens us, we always return. Fishermen, swimmers, surfers, they keep going back to the sea. Explorers cross it to find what’s beyond. Scientists dive in to discover what hides below. Even when the ocean throws its worst at us, we keep pushing forward. Maybe that’s because, deep down, we were never meant to live in the water, yet we’ve always found ways to adapt. We build boats, we dive deep, we learn how to breathe through tanks and machines. We may not have gills, but we’ve found ways to belong there, even for a while. That’s what humans do, we face the things we’re not built for, and somehow, we make it work.

What the Ocean Teaches Us

That’s what the ocean means to me. It’s a mirror for everything we’re afraid of and everything we’ve overcome. My seaweed fear faded as I grew older, but the lesson stayed. The ocean wasn’t trying to scare me, it was teaching me. The things that seem the most terrifying at first often turn out to be the things that shape us the most. We step into the water, unsure and nervous, and when we come back out, we’re a little braver than before.

So the next time you find yourself by the shore, listening to the waves or watching them crash, think about what the ocean means to you. Maybe it’s peace. Maybe it’s adventure. Or maybe, like me, it’s a reminder that fear doesn’t have to stop us, it just means there’s something out there worth facing.

To discover more about our vision and how we help travelers explore the sea, visit our About Us page.

Written by Kaya Uysal