Dr. Sarah Rasmi
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Dubai is the only place where I feel all parts of myself come together.
I’ve lived in nine countries. And somewhere along the way, home stopped meaning the place I was born and started meaning the place where I actually make sense.
That doesn’t mean the last few weeks have been easy. We’ve all been in a bit of a holding pattern. We’re not quite sure what’s coming next, running contingency plans in our heads… it is exhausting.
But for me, there’s never been a question of where I belong.
This clip is from my recent interview on with talking about repatriation, identity, and the psychology of calling a country home when it wasn’t the one you were born in.
29/03/2026
Eight years ago I turned the key to our first office feeling equal parts excited, proud, and quietly terrified. Two years in, Covid hit. I had just expanded, sent my team home before it was required, and did whatever it took to keep the place alive for the people who had built it with me. I survived that, and somewhere in it I found out what I was actually made of.
Right now feels familiar in ways I didn’t expect, but I am not the same person I was in 2020 and neither is this place. The UAE came back from Covid bigger and stronger. I watched it happen and believed in it completely. I feel exactly the same way now, about this country, about Thrive, and about myself.
That’s not optimism. That’s eight years of showing up.
