05/06/2026
I planned.
Life planned differently.
When I first came to the UAE, I thought things would fall into place quickly.
Instead, I couldn’t find a decent job for almost two years.
When I finally got one, I rushed into it because I was tired of waiting. It turned out to be one of the worst experiences of my life. I worked for months without being paid properly, had a bully for a boss who made me cry regularly, and I left feeling defeated.
That experience stayed with me for a long time.
Then came motherhood.
My baby spent a month in the NICU. Then came COVID. Then came all the emotions that many mothers know too well.
.exhaustion, overwhelm, postpartum struggles, and the feeling that life just keeps throwing one thing after another at you.
For years, I felt bitter.
Not just about my circumstances, but about life itself.
I stopped expecting good things. I stopped putting myself out there. I stopped making new friends. I assumed disappointment was waiting around every corner.
And then one day, I realized something:
Nothing around me had changed.
But I had.
I had become so focused on what wasn’t working that I could no longer see what was.
The moment I started changing my perspective, things slowly began to shift.
Not because life suddenly became perfect.
But because I stopped giving my past experiences the power to decide my future.
I’ve always been someone who reflects deeply, and over the last 10 years, that habit of introspection has helped me grow in ways I never expected.
Today, my life still isn’t perfect.
But I finally feel at peace with where I am.
I’m proud of the woman I’ve become.
And I’ve learned that life not going according to plan doesn’t mean it’s going in the wrong direction.
Sometimes it’s simply taking you somewhere you couldn’t have imagined for yourself.
