Upbringing
I am Egyptian. I was born and raised in the beautiful city of Alexandria.
Growing up I was fascinated by computers. II remember times when my elementary school teachers used to give me their Facebook credentials to hack Facebook games for them and give them unlimited resources. Not really sure what they were thinking, but they're lucky I was a well-mannered kid and didn't
I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been born to a family that values education and understands that it's one of the best investments one could make. Without this this being implanted in my head at a very young age, I would be in a completely different place now.
I knew at a very young age that I wanted to study abroad. It wasn't just the quality of education that attracted me to the idea, but also the new life and world views I'd be subjected to.
So I started seriously prepping myself for applying to US universities starting middle school.
On Monday, February 16, 2015, I received an email that would change the course of my life:
"Congratulations on joining Bucknell’s Class of 2019 as an early decision student. Your commitment to Bucknell is special, and we can’t wait to welcome you to campus!"
It was surreal.
Moving to the US
After getting accepted to Bucknell University, I moved to the US in 2015 to pursue my lifelong dream of studying abroad. During my time at Bucknell I would meet some of the most fascinating people, many of which are lifelong friends and mentors now.
At Bucknell, I
My time at Bucknell has been nothing short of exhilarating and I am incredibly grateful to have been given such a life-changing opportunity.
Now
I live in Salt Lake City, where I landed my first job as a Product Manager at Pluralsight.
Notice how my story thus far has been work and education-centric. Yea, I want to change that.
I never had the privilege of slowing down and thinking about what life really means to me and how I define success until I graduated college. Thanks to a stable job, I now have the time to think about what I consider a successful life, and it certainly is not work-centric.
This is not to say that I don't like working; I actually love being a product manager and solving complex problems. Nevertheless, I came to realize how workism has become the new normal and I refuse to succumb to it.
And this is why I try to divide the pie we call life as equally as I can around the following:
- Family
- Health and Wellbeing
- Religion and Spirituality
- Work
- Social Life
- Personal Development
- Hobbies and Interests
- Giving Back
Now even as a single dude with almost no responsibilities, I still find it hard to balance those pieces of the pie. Sometimes some of those pieces get more space, time, and energy than I had intended for them, yet I learned that I quickly need to maintain balance to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
