Beauty and vulnerability are at the core of a sincere connection. The illusions that they carry bring expectations, fear, and trust issues. Open To Interpretation is a collection of poems that chronicle the restlessness, loneliness, cynicism, and emptiness of a yearning to extend beyond conformity and into the light of originality. I think that poetry is an exhibit of the art of the soul and a reflection of its voice. That is why I presented uncomfortable themes like abandonment, false praise, and bitterness to display the power of being eccentric. These topics are indicators of our need to be loved, desire to be understood, and wish to be accepted. Open To Interpretation urges readers to appreciate themselves and what they have to offer the world while emphasizing the aspects that make each of us distinctly different.
Aida Mandić (1990—) was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Bosniak parents. She escaped the Bosnian War and genocide as a baby (in a bulletproof vest) and lived in Croatia, a refugee camp in the Czech Republic, France, and Malaysia when she was a little girl. Aida attended the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor and graduated in 2012. She also studied English Literature abroad at the University of Oxford. She has taken online courses from Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Yale, Singularity University, and University of Nicosia, amongst others.
Aida worked in sales and marketing in her early career. Aida is the Founder and CEO of Searchkey, an education technology company she formed in 2017. Searchkey is an edtech platform that helps empower students to find funding, resources, and information for their education so they can achieve their academic goals. Aida hopes to inspire students from disadvantaged backgrounds to find scholarships, reach their potential, and achieve their dreams. Ms. Mandić was awarded $150,000 in scholarships and merit-based grants as well as $100,000 in awards. She received full-ride scholarship offers to several top universities, totaling over a million dollars. Aida has also been offered numerous scholarships and fellowships to highly prestigious and selective MBA and PhD programs.
She is the author of 129 books, including: How Winners Are Made, What Is Life Anyway?, A Candid Aim, Justice For Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Incognito Checkmate. Aida is currently writing her next book. She has written over 100 books which she plans to publish over time. She is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards such as the Motor City Match Award, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Forbes Fellow, OXFAM CHANGE Leader, and National Academy of Social Insurance Conference Scholar. She was selected as a finalist in the 2016 American Songwriting Awards, received a 2015 Director's Award from the Paramount Song Nashville International Song and Lyric Writing Competition, and was a Nominee in the 2015 USA Songwriting Competition as well as the International Songwriting Competition. Aida was nominated by the UN's Global Forum on Remittance, Investment, and Development as a RemTECH Awards Nominee, a Jovani IT Girl Contest Semifinalist, a Discover Card Tribute semifinalist, and as a Visa Everywhere Initiative Semifinalist. She was a U.S. Ambassador at the 2012 G(irls) 20 Summit and has also received recognition for her leadership in technology by Intercon as a Top 50 Tech Leader award nominee. She has served in a variety of different roles such as motivational speaker, translator, teacher, social media consultant, and scholarship advisor. She enjoys mentoring youth in her free time by encouraging them to live a positive, constructive, and ambitious lifestyle.
I believe that a new literary movement, Guidism, should be utilized to explore the choices which shape our lives and how they define our literary genres and themes. Genres should not only be based on form, style, and