Wisdom: An Essay on Self-Awareness

By Haven Duddy

This essay explores self awareness - the quiet, honest moments where we see our patterns clearly, understand our part, and find calm in knowing what is real.

Wisdom isn't about being right.

It's about knowing you might be wrong.

In fact, the wisest people I've met all share on trait:

They pause.

That tiny pause -

before reacting,

before defending,

before insisting they know -

is what separates wisdom from certainty.

Because certainty is easy.

Certainty is loud.

Certainty makes you feel big,

even when your world is small.

Wisdom, on the other hand,

asks a harder question:

"What if I'm the one missing something?"

That's it.

That's the whole trick.

The moment you assume your perspective is incomplete,

the world opens wider.

You grow.

Your story stretches.

Your understanding deepens.

And here's the part nobody wants to admit:

Most of the time, when something someone else says

makes no sense to you,

it's not because they're wrong -

it's because you don't yet understand

the world they're speaking from.

Wisdom is the willingness

to investigate that world

before dismissing it.

It's saying:

"Hold on.

If this makes sense to them,

there must be a version of reality

where this is true.

Let me go find it."

You don't have to agree with it.

But you do have to walk around it,

look at it from all sides,

and try to understand

how a belief like that could form.

That effort -

that curiosity -

is wisdom.

Because the truth is:

Most of our arguments are not about facts.

They're about perspectives that we haven't met yet.

Two maps of the world that don't overlap.

Two life histories that don't match.

Wisdom is bridging the space between them.

Wisdom is realizing that political opposites

are often the same fear wearing different costumes.

That disagreements are usually two truths

standing shoulder to shoulder

instead of face to face.

Wisdom is knowing

you're not here to referee anyone else's reality.

You're here to understand your own

and honor the places where it intersects with others.

So the next time something feels absurd,

off,

or unbelievably wrong to you.....

Pause.

Take a breath.

And ask yourself.

"What would I have to believe for this to make sense?"

Not to agree.

Not to surrender your truth.

Just to understand.

That's the whole game.

Wisdom isn't a crown.

It's a compass.

It won't tell you you're right.

It will tell you where to look.