It’s funny how often I hear this line:

“You’re so mature for your age.”
Or the classic:
“I wish I had your perspective when I was in my 20s too.”

And I usually laugh and say,

“Well... it’s not too late! Sure, you weren’t born in the Middle East, but you can always go live there for a bit. Let life humble you a little. Then move to three more countries, get hit with three different cultural shocks, and work twice as hard to get what you deserve, because you’re an outsider and not allowed to feel belonged easily.”
“Also — try figuring out your spiritual identity at 15 because your mixed-religious family just handed you two different 500-page books and told you to go figure it out yourself.”

That’s usually when they laugh and say:

“Okay no thanks, we’re good.”

It usually comes up when I meet people — whether it’s a senior exec at some event or someone just a few years younger than me. They’re trying to be nice (and I appreciate it), but the truth is, my perspective showed up with experiencing chaos, courage, and reflection — they stretched me and forced me to grow. And somewhere in that chaos, I met solitude — not the sad, echo-y kind. The real kind. The kind that gives you space to think, to question and to break open. That’s what solitude gave me. Not isolation, but expansion.

And for that, I’m endlessly grateful. Every step, every country, every strange in-between moment — it shaped me.

But here’s the thing, I truly believe everyone needs a little bit of solitude at some point in their life.
A moment where it’s just you, your thoughts, and the quiet power of nature around you. Because in that stillness — that’s where the real thinking happens.

That’s where you get the chance to think deeply and reach intellectual maturity.

If you always stay in your comfort zone, in the world you already know, surrounded by people who reflect your own ideas back at you…
How can you ever build a unique way of seeing things?

And no, it’s not easy! But it’s so worth it.

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