Dubai: Over 18 years in Dubai, Filipina expat Nerry Toledo didn't just build a life, she reinvented it, evolving from an advertising executive into a workplace wellbeing specialist in a city that gave her permission to transform.How it all beganIt’s the little things … quiet walks, long-lasting friendships and the simple joys of life, that’s what makes a place ‘home’.For Filipina expat Nerry Toledo, it was an accumulation of those little things that turned her one-year plan to work in Dubai into nearly two decades in a city that became part of her life.“When you first move abroad, you notice the big things: the job, the buildings, the opportunities, the lifestyle. When somewhere becomes home, you begin to treasure the ordinary things: your morning walk, familiar faces, your favourite neighbourhood … a slow Sunday morning when you have nowhere you need to be,” she said.When Toledo, who works as workplace mental health and wellbeing specialist, looks back to when she first landed in Dubai in 2008, she doesn’t point to a single dramatic moment when Dubai started to feel like home. Instead, all she can identify is an accumulation of “ordinary moments” that started to root her life in the city.“As the city grew, I grew with it,” she said.There are many parallels Toledo can see in her own journey with Dubai’s – the resilience, the belief that it’s Dubai’s people who embody the spirit of the city and the understanding that growth rarely follows a straight line.The first lessonOver the years, watching the city navigate some of the biggest global and regional challenges informed the approach Toledo adopted in her own life.“No country is immune to challenges. What matters is how a country responds when those challenges arrive. One of the greatest lessons the UAE has taught me is that resilience isn't about pretending difficulties don't exist. It is about facing reality, adapting and continuing to move forward. I think living here for so long has taught me some of that personally, too,” she said.When growth is lateralAnother lesson Toledo has learnt along the way is that change is the only constant. Life in the city taught her the value of reinventing herself, and why a difficult chapter does not have to become your whole story.“There is something about Dubai that keeps looking forward. It doesn't seem afraid of evolution. It welcomes transformation,” she said.This transformation is more than evident in Toledo’s professional journey over the years. Having arrived in Dubai after getting a job in advertising, she moved to public relations, where she worked for over a decade. She eventually discovered yoga, and trained as a yoga and mindfulness teacher, finally moving to her current role as a workplace mental health and wellbeing specialist.“I have a bachelor's degree, with a major in marketing, but if you had shown the younger me what my career would eventually look like, I probably wouldn't have believed you,” she said.That’s because Dubai, she says, became her classroom. Working in a city where nationalities, cultures, businesses, and ideas from around the world converge taught her to communicate across cultures and build relationships. It also taught her that growth can often be lateral.“Dubai gave me the confidence to understand that I didn't have to remain one version of myself,” she said.“My career has never been a straight ladder. It has been a collection of doors. Dubai gave me the opportunity to open them, but it also taught me to have the courage to walk through,” she added.Realigning prioritiesHer biggest takeaway after almost two decades in Dubai, though, has been the appreciation that it’s the little things that add up to a whole life, well lived.“Some of the moments that gave me the deepest sense of belonging were the smallest ones. It was receiving a message from someone I had never met saying one of my yoga videos had helped with their pain. It was reading a student's review about how they felt after my class. It was seeing someone become emotional during a wellbeing workshop and then feeling safe enough to share what they were going through. It was watching strangers walk into a community yoga class and, over time, become a community. Those moments made me realise that I wasn't only building a career in Dubai. I was contributing something to the place that had given me so much,” she said.That need to contribute and connect has also changed the way Toledo views success, both personally and professionally.Speaking about her work as a mental health and wellness professional, she said: “It has become deeply meaningful work for me. At this stage of my life, I want my career to be about more than a job title. I want the work I do to have a positive impact on people's lives.”A simple interaction last week reiterated her belief that it’s always the little things that hold the strongest pull. While skateboarding around her neighbourhood park in Jumeirah Lake Towers, a friendly dog decided to join her for the fun.“Somehow, we ended up skateboarding together. It sounds like such a small story, but perhaps that's exactly what home is,” she said.The next chapterThat journey, over 18 years, is a distinctly Dubai experience – a space where she found the courage to explore different versions of herself, but every new door required the willingness to work hard, remain curious, and walk through it.Looking back, she can just smile at the young woman who arrived with one bag and a one-year plan, not realising how her life would change. Looking ahead, she hopes to give back to the community and the city that has helped shape her life in more ways than one.“I have learned not to be afraid of evolution or transformation. The person who arrived here 18 years ago could never have predicted the life I have today. I think there is something beautifully reflective of Dubai in that. The city keeps evolving, and somehow it gives you permission to evolve with it,” she said.
