Growing up in Dubai isn’t living in a bubble. It’s a 'superpower'

Dubai: There’s a joke people love making when they meet someone who grew up in Dubai. “You live in a bubble.” For the longest time, I never understood why that was supposed to be an insult. Because if this is a bubble, it’s one I’m incredibly grateful to have grown up in. I’m a Gen Z Dubai kid. Born and raised here. And the older I get, the more I realize that growing up in this city didn’t just give me an address - it shaped the way I see the world. One of the biggest things people don’t understand about Dubai kids is that we weren’t raised to categorize people before getting to know them. Religion? Caste? Race? Nationality? Wealth? Those weren’t things that decided who sat next to you at lunch, who came over after school, or who became your best friend. We were simply raised around people. In one classroom, you’d have twenty nationalities. Birthdays meant food from different cultures. Sleepovers meant learning traditions that weren’t your own. Every celebration became everyone’s celebration. To us, diversity wasn’t a corporate buzzword. It was Tuesday. Looking back, I don’t remember ever questioning where someone came from before deciding if we could be friends. They were just… my friends. It wasn’t until I moved abroad for my master’s that I realized the rest of the world doesn’t always work like that. People asked questions I’d never thought to ask. They cared about labels I had never paid attention to. Suddenly I understood what everyone meant by “the Dubai bubble.” But instead of feeling embarrassed by it, I felt proud. Because what people call a bubble, I call a privilege. Dubai teaches you that kindness isn’t selective. That strangers help strangers. That if your car breaks down, someone WILL stop. If you’re lost, someone will guide you. If you’re having a bad day, someone somehow notices. There’s an unspoken understanding that we’re all just trying to make it, and we can make it easier for each other. You don’t realize how rare that feeling is until you leave. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel extensively, and every destination has something special to offer. But nowhere has ever felt quite like Dubai. In other words, home. It’s not just the skyline or the luxury that makes it different. It’s the mindset. Growing up here makes you optimistic almost by default. Dreaming big isn’t seen as unrealistic. Ambition isn’t something people laugh at. If anything, Dubai encourages you to think bigger. You grow up believing that impossible is just something that hasn’t been built yet. In a city that creates islands in the sea, builds the world’s tallest towers, launches global ideas, and reinvents itself every few years, you stop believing there are limits. You start believing that if someone else can do it, maybe you can too. That confidence stays with you wherever you go. And then there’s the standard. Dubai quietly spoils you. The architecture. The food. The art. The service. The events. The innovation. The attention to detail. Excellence becomes normal. You grow up surrounded by world-class experiences without even realizing it, because that’s simply everyday life. Maybe that’s a reflection of the leadership that built this city - not just ambitious leadership, but leadership with vision, personality, and an appreciation for quality, creativity, and possibility. That culture trickles down. It influences the people who grow up here. I’ve noticed something interesting whenever I travel or meet new people. The moment they hear you’re from Dubai, there’s an expectation. “You must know the best places.” “You’ve probably met people from everywhere.” “You’ll understand different cultures.” Sometimes they even say, “Of course she’s from Dubai.” And honestly? They’re usually right. Dubai kids carry themselves differently. Not because we think we’re better than anyone else. But because we’ve been exposed to so much from such a young age. We’re adaptable. We’re curious. We’re comfortable with differences instead of intimidated by them. We’re ambitious because we’ve watched ambition become reality all our lives. We know how to fit into almost any room because we’ve spent our lives in rooms filled with people from every corner of the world. Growing up in Dubai didn’t shelter me from the world. It prepared me for it. So no, I don’t mind if people say I grew up in a bubble. Because if that bubble taught me to judge people by their character instead of their background, to dream without limits, to embrace cultures instead of fearing them, to believe opportunities exist, and to treat kindness as the default - not the exception - then maybe the world could use a few more bubbles like Dubai.