| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | The most memorable moment from my childhood was when I won a soccer tournament for my school. Me and my brother played a big part and made our family proud. Trust me ... it was not the World Cup, and I was not Lionel Messi, but it still felt good. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | This is a very simple answer. My brother! We grew up close sharing similar interests and being close to each other. We both like traveling, we both like soccer, we were both good at school. The only difference is I tend to be analytical, and he tends to be handy and technical. Can you guess who ended up at engineering school and who ended up at Law School? |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | Let me address the question but answer it a different way. To do so I asked myself, from historical figures, whose character traits I admired the most and why. I ended up with Nelson Mandela. He possesses the character traits I admire the most, resilience and humility. Through his life he showed me, and the world, why commitment to a cause through adversity is highly important. And he was also humble enough to show me the power of his humility when he sat across from his enemies. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I don't know if I can describe the funny moment in writing. But let me give it a go. I had a friend who was a son of a diplomat that has resided in Addis for more than a decade. We went to Mercato to buy some traditional scarves together. One vendor (assuming he was a foreigner, and I was a diaspora) tried his luck with an absurd price. We played along acting tourist for a while and pranked him. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | If time, money, and (if I may add) politics and security are not issues I would like to visit the countryside of Ethiopia. After crisscrossing the United States and enjoying all the glitz from LA to NY, I would like to visit something different. I would like to witness the otherworldly Danakil Depression and maybe the summit of the Bale Mountains too. Marveling at the sight of Blue Nile Falls would also be wonderful. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | There is an Amharic saying that roughly translates to “Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in your youth.” I would like to pass on this African message to my children so that they would make good choices early on so that they will shape their future. The time they use to read, to learn, and to listen to wise counsel would help them in the long run. |
