The Beauty in the Unknown
February 17, 2025
Writer: Jordan Mayer-Brownfeld
Editor: Jaz Seiden
There is a moment at the beach where the world goes quiet. When I step into the salty water and dip my head under it. The only sound is the endless rhythm of the waves, a heartbeat. People often talk about the ocean’s vastness, unpredictability, and the ability it has to take. But for me, it gives– the ocean has always been my place of peace.
My love for the beach started when I was a child. Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to it: the nostalgia. My parents, my brother, my cousins, and I would pack our car and drive the 45 minutes south it took to get to the closest coast. We would spend our summers with the sun beating down on our skin, the salt in our hair, and the sand beneath our fingernails. Hours and hours would pass, and our only worry was whether the tide would wash away our sandcastles.
As I got older, my beach activities shifted from spending carefree days with my family to moments of serenity and reflection. For me, it starts with the sound. The waves don’t demand your attention the way city noise does. They don’t interrupt or bear down on you. They simply exist: rolling in and out with a kind of certainty that feels like reassurance. No matter what, the ocean will return to the shore. It doesn’t rush, doesn’t hesitate, it just moves. A limitless inhale and exhale, a reminder that some things in life are meant to flow rather than be controlled. Then, it’s the sand beneath my feet; it grounds me in the present.
Some people fear the deep, the unknown beneath the surface. To me, that unknown is something to be fascinated by. Something that makes me wonder, something to encourage my imagination. The ocean isn’t an empty pit. It’s full of life, full of stories. It holds history in its depths, whispers of memories in its waves. It’s a reminder that the world is bigger than me, but not in a way that makes me feel small. It’s a way that makes me feel connected to something unlimited, ancient, and infinite.
That’s why I always find myself drawn back to the beach. Standing at the edge where land meets water, where certainty meets the unknown. The ocean is not a thing to stay away from. It’s a beautiful force to trust, to wonder about, and to find solace. In these qualities, I find peace.