Adulthood is like grade school in many ways. Boxed macaroni and cheese becomes a staple when you’re too tired from work to cook, and flipping the channel to some mindless cartoon is a good break for your brain. Bedtime may even come as early as eight o’ clock. But perhaps the most important parallel of all: enemies (or more popular, frenemies). In elementary, it was the girl that just so happened to have a crush on the same boy as you, or the boy that would bug you for the fun of it- but today, it may be that one girl at the office that loves to air everyone’s dirty laundry (especially yours), or even the ex-boyfriend that won’t stop spreading lies about you and your relationship. Whatever the case, it’s easy to get caught up in your frustration for these things, and the desire to retaliate becomes unbearably strong. But what does it say about you to stoop to their level?
What would Malala Yousafzai do? Known as the girl who stood up to the Taliban, a prominent terrorist organization in Afghanistan, her story goes something like this: After becoming a blogger for BBC in 2009 under a pen name to protect her identity, she began to speak out about the Taliban’s threats to deny her and many others an education, among other issues (including child labor and the effects of social media). However, her real name was eventually revealed and she became a major target of the Taliban; as a result, she was shot in the head on the way home from school at the age of 14, along with two other girls, though she was the one seeked out specifically. She went through countless surgeries and made a miraculous recovery- so much so that she was able to give a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday, and quickly became a leading advocate for children’s rights and the right of everyone to an education. She’s written a book, been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and continues to speak out against the injustices she and many others have faced, despite still being a target for the Taliban, claiming she’s afraid of no one. While Malala’s story is in no way, shape or form as simple as these everyday nuisances we’re talking about, her message of non-violent, peaceful protest (like that of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) is something that can be applied to any situation, if it means truth and justice will prevail in society. In sum, Malala did say, “If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace, and through dialogue, and through education.”
