Popular wisdom says that maturity doesn’t come with age, but with responsibility. You can be an adult at eighteen after having lived through a harsh childhood and adolescence. Likewise, you can be a child at fifty, have children of your own, live off your parents, and spend your days absorbed in other people’s lives on social media.

I believe every person must go through certain stages in order to mature. For example, living completely alone, perhaps in another country; experiencing total bankruptcy, to the point of not being able to cover even the basics; feeling emotionally shattered by a broken heart; facing a difficult illness, or caring for sick parents. These are just a few examples of situations many people go through—moments that make them realize the easy life is over and that it’s time to take control. It’s in these moments that we understand no one is going to solve our problems for us, and that we must either accept reality as it is or do something to change it. Our attitude toward life’s hardships marks the moment we stop being children and become adults.

In my case, that moment arrived through solitude. At a stage in my life when I found myself completely alone—not just physically, but emotionally—I realized my adulthood had finally begun. I understood that all my past mistakes had been made by a child living in a man’s body, and that it was time to recover my faith, to bring God back into my life, and to start solving things one step at a time. From that day on, everything changed, and my life returned to the path it should have always followed.

Solitude made me reflect and helped me understand that neither the past nor the future truly exist—that all I have is the present moment in my hands. I learned that my attitude today must be different, and I learned to begin each day with gratitude and faith. Since that moment, years ago now, I have lived happily, one day at a time.