Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I hold that to be true. I understand that sometimes one can be so infatuated with an idea or thing that the negatives pale in comparison to the unintelligible positives we conjure up to justify convictions. This preface will make sense shortly, I promise.
I’ve been at business school for two incredible years and I graduated only two weeks ago. I am lucky to have met some of the most intellectually-stimulating, determined, diverse, competitive and collaborative people in the world; people that I am sure will leave our intellectually promiscuous bubble to do incredible things with their lives.
I’m lucky to have traveled to 14 different countries, far and wide and loved every minute of learning about beautiful differences in how to do business in parts of Asia, how to competitively (and successfully) sail a J70 keel boat on the Italian Riviera in 20+ knots, how disciplined one must be to train with the U.S. Marines, how determined and risk-loving one must be to build houses in shanty-towns in downtrodden neighborhoods in West Philadelphia (a 10 minute drive from my house for the past two years) and then convincing Arab business moguls to come to said city and talk business.
I even calculated the marginal benefit of extra gym time to find exactly how under-trained you can be and still be able to scale a mountain to smile down at Africa from its peak. It’s been like drinking out of a fire hose and I’ve loved it.
During my two years at school there was one experience that topped them all. The pinnacle of my experience was last summer, right before our first democratically elected president was deposed, when two of my friends and I brought about 25 of our classmates to see the Egypt we call home.
It was hot, crowded, loud, messy and we loved it. We danced on the Nile in Cairo until the early hours of the morning. We saw the Nile water turn from Cairo’s green to Luxor and Aswan’s crystal blue as we cruised down, literally temple-hopping in what was an awe-inspiring display of historical magnificence.
I would shush some of my non-Egyptian classmates as our tour guide told us about the magic of the Valley of the Kings because it had been so long since I had heard the stories. We then island hopped in Hurghada and Gouna and went from protected island to protected reef.
Our classmates were baffled when we ordered lunch delivery to our boat on the Nile and then literally had nothing to say when we ordered another delivery… to our moving bus. We rode boats, planes, trains, catamarans, camels, hot-air balloons and, my personal favorite, donkeys in our two-week rumble in the Egyptian jungle.
The compliments and gratitude we got on this trip offered immediate gratification for us and served to solidify my personal view that she has so much more to offer. We had achieved our objective – getting people that are none-the-wiser to understand why we love her so much.
Egypt is of course not without her faults. However, as long as each one of us believes in a better tomorrow and does her or his part to make it better, we will inch towards her full potential.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We’ve been given a gift but we have to do our parts to make that beauty known and take care of it in every way we know how.
I’ve missed the Egyptian smile, I’ve missed its streets and its commotion. I’ve missed the emerging-markets hustling that I’ve learned during my time with her.
That is what makes her beautiful. Oh, and I am bringing another batch of international kids for a ridiculous do-over. Egypt here we come!
WE SAID THIS: Don’t miss “10 Photos to Remind You How Beautiful Egypt Is“.