Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Prior to reading this book, I also, like many of my friends, thought of Malala as overrated. "Why did she get the Nobel Prize?", yada yada…types

This book shifted that perspective drastically. Imagine doing something just as a rebel teenager and it being lauded by the world around you, being put up on a pedestal, and being held to a VERY high standard FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. You didn't really ask for it, but the weight of the world's expectations is on you forever because you made the "mistake" of standing up for yourself that one time.

Since I experienced this in my personal life on a very micro/nano level as a teenager, this book hit close to home. I put aside my envy of Malala getting one book deal after another for "just" getting shot, while my Substack or blog posts on a website I created would never get so many eyeballs…

Malala takes us on a journey of discussing how she's 🎀 just a girl 🎀. Her first crush, first heartbreak, first joint, first therapy sesh...she talks about it all.

There were so many quotes that made me laugh out loud - I read them to my mom and of course underline to pen into this review. I was left in awe of this education activist who is also a witty, sassy college student.

Any former "gifted" child prodigy who studied abroad and is now a burnt-out millennial would love this book.

As promised, here are my favorite quotes…

[ON LOCAL STUDENTS ON ABROAD CAMPUS] not unkind, but not welcoming either

[On her first actual friend she made in Oxford] Cora gave me what I needed the most - a blank page to write whatever I chose

"Think of it as education through interrogation". I nodded energetically, like I couldn't wait to be questioned for my intellectual crimes.

[On why she hates progressives questioning her choice to wear a veil as much as wearing-jeans-backlash gang.] I wouldn't justify my choices to the secular mob any more than I would to the denim police.

[Her take on her Dad's ideology on parenthood] (dad:) "Don't ask what I did, Ask what I did not do. I did not clip her wings". He often spoke of me as a bird, but sometimes I felt more like a kite - flying high when it served him, pulled back to earth by a string when it did not.

[HER BOYFRIEND ASSER being a GREEN FOREST] "So...you're saying that I just need to find a way to reverse about five thousand years of patriarchy and social norms around marriage...and then we can be together?...for you I'll try anything."

[ASSER ON BEING QUESTIONED BY MALALA ON IF HE WOULD FORBID HER FROM WEARING CERTAIN CLOTHES] "Well, last summer when we planned to go hiking, you showed up in heels. I would prefer you not to do that again. Otherwise dress however you like."

[ON ACCIDENTALLY EATING PORK] It wasn't technically a sin if you did it unwittingly, but what God might forgive, I suspected my mum would not.

[On initial days of being dating Asser] My lack of dating experience sometimes meant I was trying to court a twenty-nine-year-old man with the romantic toolkit of a twelve-year-old girl

[random quote, forgot context] Prisoners who have lived their whole lives in darkness believe that the shadows they see are the real world

[just imposter syndrome things] I worried that they suspected I wasn't as smart as them and didn't deserve to be there, having jumped the queue because I was famous.

[Trying to use post-its to self-motivate ] These affirmations were worth less than the Post-its on which they were written.

[On contemplating dipping into the dating pool] I'd seen what happened to my friends when they staked their emotional equilibrium on someone else's moods and actions.

[CREEPY MYSOGNIST UNC ENCOUNTER] him: "Look at her face! she has sacrificed her beauty to give a good image to Pashtuns and Pakistan" ....My uncle's comments also implied a worldview I could not endorse - that a woman's beauty was worth more than her mind or spirit, and that martydom was something to celebrate. I did not endure multiple surgeries and years of pain for "the glory of Pakistan"....I was seething by the time he(unc) finished and another man reached for the mic. But my dad stepped in and said we were done with speeches for the day.

[HINDI/URDU QUOTE SOUNDING HILARIOUSLY PECULIAR IN ENGLISH] "I have ridden horses, so I can't be jealous of your donkey"

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