The biggest step

I'm running for the Members Committee of AIESEC in Egypt 2007 - 2008.

A term in the members committee (which is the national committee) lasts one year, and is a payed full time job. That means, if I get selected for this, I will take a break from my studies and leave Switzerland in the end of July for more than a year.

Why AIESEC in Egypt? My work in Thailand (which was also in the MC) has showed me, that I truly enjoy working for this organisation full time, I enjoy being part of an international team and I can't resist the challenge of having to adapt to a foreign environment.
Secondly, I have for a long time been interested in the Arabic culture. This interest has grown rapidly since I took up my studies of Islam and the Arabic language. I felt more and more drawn to this part of the world and in the past weeks, I started to realise that I want to go there and experience it. It feels right to combine these two things: AIESEC and the Arab world.


It is a big step. Possibly the biggest step I ever took. Of course you could name other big steps: Like that in my very wild times as a 14 year old, I decided not to fall into drugs and drop out of school maybe. Or that I took up a university education. Or that I went to the United States for a year when I was 16.
But these steps, I feel, I never actively took. I always new I wanted them, since a time when I wasn't even conscious of that. And when the time came to do it, I just did it.
This is different. I didn't always know that I would like to go to live and work in Egypt, a country that is geographically, but especially culturally so far away from everything I live in and am comfortable with. I didn't always know that I would love to challenge myself so much, that it's not only a completely foreign country, but also I team I don't know yet and a job that will not always be easy .
You might argue, that it's not the biggest step I took in my live so far. But one thing I know for sure: It is the scariest. Scary in a good way.

Today was the application deadline. I send in my 10 pages application along with my CV and endorsement letters form Switzerland and Thailand (Thank you again Aida and Rob). The elections will take place in Egypt on the 30st of January. Since I will not be able to attend, I will send in a video speech in the upcoming weeks and do my interviews per telephone conference.
After the 30st I will know what my nearer future will look like.