The prologue of the memoir I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai is entitled “The Day My World Changed.” This is an immediate indication that something significant and life-altering is going to happen to Malala. The opening sentences inform us that she comes from a world very different from the one most readers are familiar with (“a country which was created at midnight”) and that she was nearly killed there. The fact that she is alive and telling her story shows us that she is a survivor, and not only that—she is a determined young woman who believes that she will one day be able to go back to her country from her exile in Great Britain, even though she was shot by the Taliban and left for dead.

Malala misses her country; she has patriotic feelings even though she knows there are many things wrong in Pakistan (wars, no electricity). She misses her old room—her childhood. Like every young person, she is most comfortable with what she knows. Therefore, she is also brave, because she is determined to one day go back to her homeland.