As I write this we are packing to leave for Disney World, where my family and I will spend close to a week hanging out with hundreds of thousands of the happiest people, not just from the US, but from all over the world. Then while I’m traveling home thousands of people from all over the world will be gathering, and as this is posted, those same thousands will be waking up and heading to their first session of the SQL Server Summit. SQL Server Summit (in case you weren’t aware) is an amazing conference where SQL Server people get together, teach each other, and say hi to friends they haven’t seen face to face since the previous year (or even longer), but probably spoke to the day before to finalize plans on how to spend this precious precious time together.

All of this got me thinking about how much the world has changed over the last few decades. How small the world has gotten. And what an amazing gift this is.

When I was a child if I wanted to get to know someone from another country, say my cousins who live in England, I would write them a letter, and wait for a response. The wait might a few days, might be a few weeks, I might never get a response. We didn’t even spend a lot of time on the phone because long distance phone calls, especially those to other countries, were prohibitively expensive. So the people I knew were almost entirely those directly around me. The people in my school, my work, my neighbors.

Now I have friends all over the world. On a regular basis I speak to people in the UK, in Canada, in Australia, even in Israel. When I travel I can video chat with my family no matter where I am. The world is becoming such a small place. And it’s AWESOME! We get to speak to people from other cultures. Learn what makes their lives different from ours. Learn the events that are common, everyday occurrences for them that are so unusual for us. Learn those special, unusual, amazing things in their lives that are common place for us. And in that learning we broaden ourselves. We become better people.

And we tend to take it all for granted. So I’d like to challenge you. Take some time today and not take it for granted. See your life through someone else’s eyes. See how special it truly is and how special you are. Show a piece your life to someone else and help them see how special they are.

Because it truly truly is, a small world.