I often look out through the two towers standing majestically in the bay in front of our house. They seem so beautiful, like bastions of good and of days gone by. For, at one time, those towers were the hinges of gates of solid granite. They were the most beautiful things in the entire land. They were gray with intricate designs of gold and onyx carved into them, showing golden scenes of tranquility and joyous peace on the side facing inward and of war and evils on the side facing outward. At least, that is what I was told. I never saw them. The gates were destroyed centuries before my birth. But the towers still remain, solitary guards keeping silent watch over our land.

I have never been outside my land. Few people have been. We are a self-sufficient country and trade very little. But we maintain good relations with the other countries. There are no countries nearby; the closest ones are thousands and thousands of miles away. It is a good thing, since it means we are not so prone to attack, but we also have to be careful not to be rash or excessive in our use of resources, since the nearest help would not be able to arrive on time. We live well, though, and have never needed help since our creation.

My family often sees me watching the towers at sunrise and sunset. They think me somewhat impractical, a dreamer. Though a dreamer I may be, it is not bad; it does not interfere with my work. They do not mind, as long as I pull my weight in the fields.

But sometimes I am seized with a longing, as I am planting the corn, or reaping the wheat, for the outside. I wonder what is outside those towers, in the vast ocean. As I watch a sunrise blazing orange between the towers, I wonder whether someone else is staring at the sunrise and wondering what is out there. I don't know. But the possibilities are vast, maybe even than the ocean.

For in the world of knowledge, nothing is bigger than the ocean. We are all marooned on an island, living our lives in isolation, not knowing what lies beyond. I want to take a ship out onto that ocean and explore the vast ocean, to see what lies beyond my little island and in the world beyond.