The Elderly Lady

This is a real story, after you read it, I’m here, eager to hear your own stories, because each of us has our own special story with that elderly lady.

My story with the elderly lady began during the hardest time in my life. Let me call it ‘ a time of repeated failures despite attempts.’

It was my first experience, and because it was the first, I didn’t know how to act, leaving me feeling lost.

As we all know, a first experience feels like a storm in the heart, shaking our balance and pushing us to act without awareness or understanding. However, despite everything, that first experience remains forever etched in both memory and feeling.

Despite that, I decided to go through it alone.

I’ve always been someone who chooses to face everything alone without complaining or relying on anyone. However, this stage was different; it felt as if the best option was silence.

Sometimes, explaining what you’re going through becomes impossible, as if what’s happening is beyond words—' like needing a new language to describe what’s happening to you.'

During that difficult time, something happened to me that struck me like lightning.

One night, at midnight, I received the news that the dream I had worked towards for more than four years had completely failed.

I couldn't bear the news and sank into such a deep depression that I couldn’t even get out of bed.

Two days after that night, I had an important appointment with my friend that I couldn’t cancel. I pulled myself together and went out, wearing a happy face, showing no signs of what had happened just two days ago. Even my friend couldn’t notice or suspect anything.

While sitting in a restaurant with my friend, an old lady approached me and asked,

– ‘What’s your name?’

= I replied, ‘My name is Raghad, ma’am.’

– She said, “You are a special person, Raghad, and you will have a brilliant future one day.”

Then she said goodbye to us and left without saying another word.

I was stunned by the situation; it has never left my memory. She didn’t know me or even anything about me. To be honest, I don’t know what she saw in me to say that. I kept asking myself: what did she see in me?

For as long as I believed that beauty, success, goodness, and even their opposites are all fake terms—not something tangible, but rather hidden beliefs in our hearts. Those who see themselves as beautiful will be seen as beautiful by others, and those who see themselves as successful will be perceived as successful by the world, and so on.

Even if you don't speak about yourself, your self-perception will tell the world who you are without any words. People will see you as you see yourself.

However, I didn’t see myself the way the lady saw me. My repeated failures ate away at me from the inside to the point that I lost my sense of self. How, then, could this lady see something in me that I couldn’t see in myself?

They taught me one day that if you want to keep going in life, you shouldn’t look back. But this time, I have to look back to understand what this lady saw in me.

What they told me was a myth. I found that sometimes you need to look back in order to keep moving forward.

Most of the time, we need to look back to see from where we started—the starting line—in order to see where we’ve reached and how many steps we’ve taken.

At times, we get caught up in our current chapter and lose sight of the whole story of our journey.

This is part of our human nature; we often erase what we've achieved over many years due to a single situation. We lose our belief in ourselves and change how we see ourselves. Consequently, we oppress ourselves with our own accusations.

Let me tell you, my dear sir: your beauty will not be erased by a period of exhaustion or illness. Your record of success will not be diminished by failure. Likewise, your good heart will not be ruined by a mistake, and so on. What is happening to you right now does not erase who you are or what you have achieved, nor does it change your essence. You are who you are, even if life hits you.

Therefore, some people are like mirrors, not for our faces, but for our stories and our hearts.

When we lose belief in ourselves, some people help restore the perspective that has been affected by past experiences. Listen to them, for they will change the equation of the story. They provide the reason, but you are the one who makes the difference—without your step, their words will have no effect. Let me tell you, while the world’s view may matter, what truly matters is how you see yourself.

Your self-perception determines how the world sees you. On the other hand, the world’s perception of you can never be as important as how you see yourself.

Think about it: what’s the point of someone seeing you as beautiful if, when you look in the mirror, you see yourself as ugly? Someone might view you as successful, but inside, you feel no pride or satisfaction with yourself. Perhaps those around you recognize your goodness, but you feel as though you're drowning in delusion.

If the whole world came together to say something, you wouldn’t believe it unless you believed it within yourself.

And for this reason, they will be the spark that reminds us of our entire story. With your success and the steps you’ve achieved, they may be the reason that reminds you of all the previous chapters, until you reach the current chapter of your story. Perhaps they will revive what has died within you, caused by all that you’ve endured.

That’s why, when you go through a tough time and someone tells you something good about yourself, let your heart listen carefully. Don’t question their words. There are those who see beyond what you see with your eyes. They simply look with their heart's eyes.

These are people who deserve to be heard; they don’t see just your present or the current chapter in your life—they see the whole story.

Don’t forget, you are a whole story, not just one chapter.

So allow their words, their faith in you, and their view of you to be a message from heaven that awakens you and changes how you see yourself.

Their words are meaningful for a reason, so don't give up until you see what they see in you.

No matter what happens, believe in yourself and accept yourself with all your messiness, mistakes, and failures before you embrace the good things.

Trust me, accepting the positive is easy, but accepting the negative—your challenges—and facing them is what determines our essence and who we will become in the future.

So, sir, be strong and resist until your last breath, so that you can look at yourself with a sense of pride that circumstances cannot shake. Your resistance will be the unwavering faith that will never change.

I am forever grateful to that lady; her words still resonate in my heart to this day. Whenever I lose faith, I remember her words and rise again, telling myself that there was something she saw in me. I will not give up until I see in myself what she saw.

Now, may you tell me your own story with the Elderly Lady.