Alaaddin Elshazly: I was an introverted person before I went to exchange to Russia with AIESEC in 2016!

1. Hi Alaaddin, how are you? I would kindly ask you to introduce yourself to the Bellspiration readers?

Hello everyone, I am amazingly doing great. My name is Alaaddin, I am from Egypt, but I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. I am currently studying Mechatronics Engineering in Hungary and working in a not-for-profit organization called AIESEC as a national product manager for our Danish branch. I am an energetic person who loves to smile and spread positivity, especially these days. I love to help as many people as possible and trying to be empathetic.

In 2012, I was a nursing faculty-student and spent two years there and worked as an ICU nurse in a private hospital for two years. However, I left the school after that, and I didn’t feel it. In 2014 I went to the commerce faculty, and I spent three out of four years there. During those years, I got to know AIESEC and joined it later, and in my final year, I decided to leave the university and study Mechatronics Engineering in Hungary. 

2. You are a member of AIESEC. Would you share with us how volunteering helps you to develop as a person?

Being a volunteer in AIESEC helped me a lot. I was an introverted person before I went to exchange to Russia with AIESEC in 2016. After that journey, I decided to join AIESEC because I saw the change and the impact this organization had made on me. I will always say that this is the best platform where I can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and then get the opportunity to fix those mistakes. 

Volunteering, in general,  is preparing you for real-life challenges excellently. It makes you appreciate the little things you have compared to the amount of work the person does and the effort I put into it. It cultivated the culture of gratitude, flexibility, reliance, and adaptability too. Besides that, of course, soft skills such as public speaking and handling a large audience, the persuasion skill has developed and still in the process of developing. And now, I'm learning extra stuff like planning and creating a roadmap for the entire organization on a national scale level at the national level for AIESEC in Denmark. I learned how to be strategic thinking, a data analyst and emotionally intelligent, and more. I believe volunteering is preparing the person for real life through those skills that I have mentioned, and volunteering can give it to you in general. The more you stay volunteering, the more you learn and prepare yourself, especially for young people. <3 

3. You changed three Universities in the culture where it is not very welcomed. Could you share that experience with us? 

In 2012, I was a freshman at the faculty of Nursing in Egypt. I didn't like nursing; to be honest, however, I spent two years there, and also I worked as an ICU Nurse in a private hospital (yes, in Egypt, it is allowed to work while you are studying in this field). Frankly, I never liked and studying medical theory and stuff like that. It wasn't for me and the result of that, I failed at my first year two times due to many reasons, one of them as I mentioned I never liked it and also my father was sick back then and then he passed away two weeks before my final exams, and that affected a lot.

I decided to change the major, and because I didn't have a high GPA, I didn't have the fancy to choose which major I want to go to, so I had to go to the faculty of commerce. It was four years, and I spent three years. The first year I was studying like crazy not to fail again, and I did everything. In my second year, I went to Russia for an exchange with AIESEC, from there, everything with me has changed. When I came back, I started to think about myself and what I want and then I decided that I would not continue in Egypt. Honestly, it was a tough decision, and I kept it for myself for a while because in our society, if you say something like this, you will get bullied about your dream (under what is called a joke). The family killed that dream by just telling it to be mediocre. In general, society doesn't believe that you can do it and drag you down until you give up the idea. I applied for a scholarship in Hungary, and by the end of my third year, I got it, and I didn't believe it. Frankly, I was super happy my mother was delighted and the family too for one or two hours, but after that, they start questioning as always; What are you going to do with your current faculty? You have one year left. Finish it and go and so on, and I hear from here and there that I should stay or wait or what if you failed? What will happen then? And so on. But I decided to say no, and I must leave because it was what I wanted for myself.

Here I am now. I am in my last year as a Mechatronics Engineering student here in Hungary. The funny truth is I thought engineering is what I wanted all those years, but I discovered that it wasn't my thing at all and all those years, dreaming about Engineering was utterly wrong. Yes, I may still be lost a bit about what I am doing, but at least I got the picture about what I don't like, or I don't want to do.  

4. Can you tell us more about Egypt and Saudi Arabia - culture, tradition, food, people... You are living now in Hungary. Would you tell us how hard or easy it was for you to adapt to a new country environment and people? How do you handle nostalgia?

I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. It is a very conservative country, and my parents were Egyptians, but I got the Saudi culture. Frankly, there is no significant difference between these two cultures, though. People in Saudi Arabia are quite conservative because it is an Islamic country where the Islam religion has started back then. In Egypt, people there are open more than in Saudi Arabia indeed. 

The Egyptian food is delicious, like the cabbage roll and stuffed grape leaves with lemon and more. When it comes to Saudi Arabia, people there love meat so much; almost every day, they eat meat like Kabbsah. 

I moved to Hungary in 2017; it was an easy move because I traveled by myself to Russia in 2016 for my exchange. Besides that, I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, as I mentioned, so being far away from home wasn't something new. The difficult part is that when I decided to come to Hungary, I knew that I wouldn't go back to Egypt at least in the next four years, and that means I can't see my mother. Yes, it is tough for me, but sometimes you need to give up something to achieve something else, come back to your family, and make them proud of you. There is always a sacrifice you have to make during your journey and grow up; I had to stay away from my family.  To be frank, the community here in Hungary and the diversity among the international students helped me pass this issue during my university time because all of us have the same problem but in different ways. Technology made many things easier; perhaps it is not like the physical part, but still. 

5. What motivates you in life? What inspires you the most?

I always have that dilemma about motivation and inspiration. So far, I have discovered that motivation is something temporary and it is not the thing that pushes you far. But inspiration is like a mission or the thing that drives you from inside even when you are exhausted and have no energy to continue. Still, your inspiration drives you while motivation is you are working for it and as soon as you achieve it, the spark is gone, or even if you don’t achieve it wouldn’t hurt that much, anyway. 

What inspires me the most is helping others to grow and be the best version of themselves. Help the people who couldn’t have a chance to develop themselves, but they have the willingness; however, something materialistic stops them. Sharing the success of someone you have helped is the most precious thing I could ever have because I couldn’t find someone to help me with a lot of things during my life experience. It is unfair not to share and help others in what I have done and cut some time for them and perhaps help them with something I do have, but they don’t.

6. Do you have an inspirational message for young people all around the world?

Do not curse the dark but lit a candle!

7. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this Bellspiration interview! Take care :)