It wasn’t about how to survive the world—it was about how to stand in it, unshaken.
Sophie Marshall, at sixty-one, had lived a life filled with lessons she hadn’t asked for but had learned deeply. Some lessons came in the form of loss, some through love, and others in the still moments of quiet reflection that only came with time. But one thing Sophie had learned above all else was that experience didn’t just teach women how to adapt to the world—it taught them how to hold their ground in it, to stand tall even when the ground beneath them was shaking.
When she met Mark, a man in his late fifties, fresh from his second divorce, there was a part of him that still believed women would always be what society had often told him they were: unpredictable, emotional, and constantly seeking approval. He expected women to be loud in their desires or quiet in their insecurities. He expected them to be either seeking validation or looking for escape.
But Sophie was different.
At first, Mark thought it was just a matter of her being reserved. After all, Sophie was intelligent, accomplished, and strong-willed, but she didn’t feel the need to shout it from the rooftops. She didn’t rush to offer advice, didn’t dominate conversations. She had a quiet confidence that seemed to come from a deeper place, one that he couldn’t quite pin down.
It was only as he spent more time with her that Mark began to realize what experience had taught Sophie—and by extension, what experience teaches all women first: to trust themselves.
One evening, they were sitting together at a small café, the conversation flowing between them as easily as it ever did. Sophie mentioned, almost casually, that she’d raised two children on her own. Her voice didn’t falter. There was no bitterness in her tone, just a simple acknowledgment of what had been her reality for years.
Mark, sensing the depth of what she had gone through, asked, “How did you do it? Raise them on your own… and still stay so… put together?”
Sophie paused for a moment, her hands resting on the table. She didn’t seem to be looking for the right answer, just gathering her thoughts. “Experience teaches you how to trust your instincts,” she said softly, meeting his gaze. “It teaches you that even when things don’t go as planned, you still have to trust that you know the way forward. You’re not always going to have all the answers, but you’ll know the next step.”
Mark was silent, taking in her words. There was a depth in her voice, an understanding in her eyes, that told him she wasn’t speaking from theory. She was speaking from lived experience. She had faced struggles—financial, emotional, physical—and had come through them with a steady confidence that didn’t need to be explained or justified.
In that moment, Mark realized what Sophie had that he hadn’t quite understood before: the ability to trust yourself in the face of everything life throws at you.
Women, especially older women like Sophie, learned quickly that experience didn’t give them all the answers, but it gave them something more powerful—the ability to sit with uncertainty, to take ownership of their choices, and to trust that, no matter how difficult life became, they had the inner strength to face it.
Later, as they stood to leave the café, Sophie smiled slightly, her eyes warm but knowing. “Experience teaches you,” she added, her voice low, “that you’re enough. You’ve always been enough.”
Mark looked at her, something clicking in his chest. He had spent so much of his life looking for approval, questioning his every move, but Sophie didn’t seek that. She had no need to. She had learned long ago that the approval she needed came from within.
And as he walked beside her in the cool evening air, Mark felt a shift inside him. He had been searching for answers in all the wrong places, but now, he saw: the true lesson wasn’t in seeking constant validation from others, it was in trusting yourself, your own strength, and your own journey.
What experience teaches women first wasn’t about fitting into the world—it was about realizing that they could hold their place in it, no matter how it swirled around them. It was about recognizing their own worth, regardless of the world’s demands. And in that quiet certainty, there was a power that Mark was only beginning to understand.
