I'm a fan of Malala, which certainly made me partial to liking this book.
As far as I can tell, Malala has shown incredible grace and poise growing up in the spotlight, particularly considering she had a narrative imposed upon her when the Taliban shot her. Already a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, she was not your typical college freshman. But of course, in many ways, she was just another student, starting college like all other regular people, eager to make new friends and have new experiences - only she had to do it all in front of British Secret Sevice officers while dodging tabloid photographers.
Still, regular person or not, she was going through college - and life - under extraordinary circumstances. Even when falling behind in her studies, she was compelled to continue working (by giving speeches all over the world) during the school term not just to help her causes, but because she was actually the sole breadwinner for her entire family!! And when she finally extricated herself from work obligations during the school year and brought up her grades, PTSD from her shooting set her back again. (As an aside, I did wonder, where was her security team when she had her first alarming PTSD episode?)
We follow Malala's personal growth as she came to terms with her own identity as a native Pakistani who had grown comfortable with the English ways of her adopted country while continuing to feel a deep, longing connection with her home in Swat Valley. I teared up when she told of her first time returning to Pakistan since being forced to leave when she was shot.
Considering her role as a world-renowned activist, her personal life had been surprisingly sheltered - she had never eaten at a McDonald's before college! (p. 34) - and some of her friends teased her for being gullible. She was a good sport and rather matter-of-fact about her naivete; in fact, she seemed all the more self-confident in the way she showed no embarrassment or self-consciousness about lacking the common knowledge and experiences of her peers. She exhibited the same straightforward directness when she described her mental health issues; though cultural stigma against mental health care likely delayed her access to treatment, there was no shame in her account, only a clear, steady desire to find some answers and figure out how to help herself.
Though most of the book centered on Malala's college experiences, her mental health, and her relationship with her future husband, there is a remarkable section towards the end when she recounted events during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan when the U.S. military withdrew. Many Malala Fund partners were in Afghanistan, and in her efforts to help them evacuate, she reached out to all the world leaders who had been happy to stand beside her for photo ops. Notably, none of the men stepped up. "Women, on the other hand, responded immediately, answering my calls and jumping into action." (p. 264)
An uplifting read, and I put down this book an even bigger fan than when I started it.
