Maja Zelihic, who was recently chosen among the 100 most inspiring people in the world for 2022, revealed in an interview that her journey took her from war-torn Sarajevo to the United States (U.S.), where she lives today and pushes borders day by day.
Being in the company of the biggest names in the world is great recognition for many years of work and effort.
Zelihic currently resides in Florida, and at the time of the start of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), she attended high school in Sarajevo. Her family stayed in Sarajevo, her mother was wounded twice, and the time without a family while in exile in Austria is the most difficult period of her life.
“Of course, this cannot be compared to anything that Sarajevans and all citizens of BiH in general experienced in the war. I was in a refugee center in Austria, where there were members of my family, refugees from Foca, and then I met some more wonderful people and friends from that center, who have stayedmy friends all my life. An additional difficulty was that I was with my boyfriend, later my husband. He is a war invalid who was evacuated as one of the three most severely wounded from Sarajevo. We were going through his 16 surgeries at the Innsbruck Clinical Center. The chances of rescuing his arm were not good, and due to other problems he had with injuries, we went through real trauma several times, I didn’t think he could recover,” Zelihic said and added that they planned to spend the rest of their lives in Sarajevo.
“We returned to Sarajevo after the war with the intention of starting a life together in BiH. But, he had the opportunity to go to the U.S. and continue his treatment there, where we hoped it would treat his arm better than w the doctors in Austria. That’s how we came here, where he had two more surgeries, and by coincidence, we stayed here, had two children, and started living, “Zelihic told.
She emphasized that their plan was to spend only one year in the U.S., but that it did not realize and that she did not hope for such success, which she achieved years after the new beginning, where they literally survived and worked extremely hard jobs.
For instance, she decided to go to college and worked all that time to pay for her education. Through two master’s degrees, a doctorate, and all days of studying she always did 2-3 jobs in parallel.
Last year, Zelihic was on the list of the 200 best leaders, and the list of the 100 most inspiring people in 2022, along with the most famous, most successful, and richest people of today. It surprised her because she did not believe she could be on the list of famous successful people of today.
She also believes that no one can lecture BiH citizens and advise them on how to live in BiH. However, according to her, the overall situation in the region is worrying.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
