SEC17/W3| Experiences come with age or circumstances!

_{Experience, a unique word that will be defined differently by each person. Heraclitus once said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." This means that every experience a person undergoes is unique and cannot be repeated exactly the same way even by the same person. Everything is constantly changing, even in the blink of an eye. Image source here}

That's why I always live in the moment, because I believe that at another time when I enter that "river" for the second time, it will surely be different. The flowing water, the blowing air, and me the person entering the river are not the same as before. People continue to grow, learn, and experience new things, so when they return to the same experience, they have become a different version of themselves.

One experience is not the same as the other and that also applies to the average person. A hundred people can experience the same thing, but if this is experienced differently and nothing is done with these experiences, then experiences do not make a person any wiser.

I fully agree with the quote I picked from the @wakeupkitty.pal account. Experience is a highly subjective matter, and therefore, everyone will have different impressions of things they see, hear, and touch. I believe that experience comes with a combination of age and circumstances.

Why did God create scars?

Throughout life, we continue to gather experiences through interactions with others, facing new challenging situations, and even enduring embarrassing moments that will make us think "damn, why did I do that?" 5 or 10 years later. But whether we realize it or not, it is such experiences that shape our maturity as adults and allowing us to become wiser moving forward. Age also provides opportunities to accumulate experience. As the longer we live, the more events and lessons we encounter.

I have lived on this earth for several decades. Yet, every day there is always something new that, upon discovering it, will make me happy, surprised, sad, shocked, angry, anxious, and most often: curious.

_{I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse, but my curiosity is so high that when I was a child, I often did unreasonable and dangerous things out of curiosity. For example, when I was young, I once heated up a piece of wire and then pressed it against my thigh, just because I was curious about how it would feel to "kiss" hot iron. Of course, the burn mark is still there until now. Image source here}

But God is indeed merciful. He created scars so that we do not fall into even deeper wounds. Similarly, trauma and regret serve as mechanisms to prevent us from falling into the same mistakes. Only a donkey falls into the same hole twice.

Make friends, so you won't easily judge people

Circumstances are equally important in shaping maturity. For example, since I was a child, my family lived with limited means to the extent that if I wanted to buy something, I had to find it myself or at least wait until my parents could buy it for me. Unfortunately, that rarely happened, so I often had to brainstorm how to get it as quickly as possible through legitimate means. By high school, I was already earning my own pocket money.

Armed with the experience of earning money at a young age, I was able to enter the professional world earlier. While my peers were still in college, I was already receiving job offers both domestically and internationally. Again, this is not to boast, as many of my peers from college days have already become successful people. Some became teachers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and even professors. I am proud of them.

After wandering here and there, I began to encounter various types of people. Life's journey introduced me to people from diverse backgrounds, including thugs, sex workers, elites, professionals, people with different sexual orientations, you name it.

_{These experiences are likely ones I would not have gained if I hadn't traveled and explored various places and environments. I used to think the world was black and white, filled only with good and bad people, men and women, places of worship and vice. I was completely wrong. There are many shades of gray between black and white, making it a challenge for me to judge someone solely based on their appearance. Image source here}

Perhaps the conclusion is this: Experience is a combination of age and circumstances that shapes human perspective on life. Like a river that cannot be stepped into twice by the same person, so too are experiences that cannot be repeated even by the same person. Therefore, cherish what you have now, because in a moment it will transform you into someone new, and then in another moment into someone new again, and so on.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my post

Have a great day

El-Nailul