What's Next?

During the process of writing a passion blog post every week, i've learned a lot.I've gained a lot from the various research that i've done and it's opened my mind to a part of the world that is dire need of attention.It was startling to see "how the othe rhalf lives", and how for years and years, these children and the people in the Middle East and Africa have struggled one conflcit after another.

I've done research on education and poverty.Illness and sexual assaults.And every week that i presented such hard research and devastating stories,through my research I was aways meant with pictures of smiling children who somehow pushed through the pain in their lives and found time for laughter.It really made me realzie, as corny as it may sound, that we really have no reason to complain about long study hours or lack of sleep in college because in many countries children are fighting for their lives, dunkering under structures to escape bombs, or watching their parents die before their eyes.We will never truly know what real struggle is.

I think that's why i chose this topic for my passion blog this semester. People's rights are my passion, children's rights are my passion. I thought in the beginning of this semester that it would just be a good topic that would be different from what every other student was doing, but i was wrong. It truly did open my eyes and have me reconsider what I might want to do in the future.Hopefully i will volunteer in some capacity to improve the lives of children overseas, who knows? All i do know, is that when a passion takes hold of you, and when you truly feel that you need to make a difference, you have to step up and take action.Bystanders will never truly feel they have a purpose until they find a passion.

I do not foresee this particular blog continuing into next semester because of the fact that it seems like all has been said.I chose to end the blog with a positive story, and on a positive light, of a girl who made a difference for herself and other young girls, despite the many obstacles that she faced.I wanted to end on that note because I felt that it was important to highlight the good.It's like when someone is depressed, the worse thing they need is more darkness and sadness coming into their lives.And it would be counterproductive to what i envisioned for this blog, to have the last post be of something heartbreaking.Even in times of bad, there's always someone's whose willing to do something good.And many times we find this in the lives of children and young people, because they seem to have a more forgiving heart. By highlighting this teenage girl as i did in my last post, I hoped to bring some positivity into the blog and have the readers realize that in these war-torn countries, not everyone is letting the suffering get to them.I hope from my blog that I made someone more aware of what is going on overseas that we really do not hear about that often.And I hope that it influenced someone to go out and make a difference.

One Girl Can Make a Difference

There are those inspirational people in history who have risen in times of adversity.Automatically who comes to mind might be Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, or Rosa Parks. Different time periods, but they put their heart and soul into what they believed was their mission in life, to enact change in their environment.

In war torn countries and impoverished nations, many people are forced to be silent. They may disagree with the laws and the treatment of their people but, are too frightened by outside forces to stand up and make a difference.

Malala Yousafzai was and is, a phenomenal young women.Like many influential men and women in history, she could not simply stay back and watch as laws in her country were limited people from reaching their full potential.She was and is a hero, in many people's eyes.


Malala inspires me to make a difference in my society.She's an eighteen year old female who at the young age of 15, was shot in the head by the Taliban. She was shot in the head because she defied society's norms.The taliaban were attacking girls schools in her area, she did not believe that it was right for them to threaten her right, and of other girls, to attend school and get and education.She began blogging for BBC about her experiences and going onto various public platforms to speak out of girl's rights of education and advancement in society.She was so inspiring that she was awarded an International Children's Peace Prize in 2011.

Malala was getting various death threats at the time, but her family did not believe that it was anythingto be extremely worried about though it frightened them.

On October 9th, 2012 Malala Yousafzai was shot in the side of the head while on the school bus, by a Taliban gunman.Two other girls were injured in the attack.

Malala was not going to let adversity stop her from making the world a better place.She was not going to let this hold her down and stop her for good.Through coming out of a coma, and going through surgery, she has risen to be even more inspiring then she was before. She has continued to speak to the public for advancement of girl's rights and she even wrote an autobiography.Though she is still a target for the Taliban, nothing seems to stop her. Like the most inspiring people who have gone through history, she is one that will be remembered for her strength, for her compassion, and for her tenacity.She is a true inspiration.