“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai

Slightly deafened by a glorious ear infection, I arose before 4am broke to prepare for a day that unknowingly, will inspire me, and hopefully, change me forever… (I’ve already noticed the change… I’m blogging folks!!)

Hitherto… It was proclaimed awe inspiring by those who created the event, it’s safe to say that they didn’t let us down, and with the help of Virgin Atlantic and DHL, they successfully delivered.

“Who is ‘us’?” you say?

Well… Us… Us was, and is made up of only a fragment of the young people across the world who volunteer, yet only 12,000 or so were lucky enough to be in attendance at this special event, attendance could only be gained through dedication and volunteering by those who are committed to selflessly giving up their time in order to “Be the change”.

‘We day’ to those who don’t actually know anything about it may be slightly puzzling, but that’s okay, I understand, or you may feel slightly apathetic, but the truth is, without knowledge, apathy is always a possibility.

One person who didn’t let this become an option is the amazing Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani education activist who anonymously wrote a diary published by the BBC detailing her life under the Taliban rule, writing at a terribly scary time when the Taliban were blowing up girls’ schools, banishing them from the education system and terrorising the community in which she resided to the point that stores stopped opening and boys too, stopped attending school.

Months after starting her blog, girls were allowed to once again attend school on the condition that they wore burqas, which led to the end of her BBC Diary.

From this and some forced time spent in a refugee camp, a very young and motivated Malala began her career as a female advocate for education in 2009, gaining her worldwide recognition by notable figures such as Desmond TuTu.

Malala was then warded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize for her actions, yet amongst this, her anonymity regarding her BBC Blog had been revealed which put her at a real risk.

Malala and her father, whom helped her acquire the blog, were receiving numerous death threats and there was an attempt to assassinate Malala on her way home from school by a masked gunman.

It’s said that he shouted "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all".

Upon being identified, he shot at her. She was hit with one bullet, which went through her head, neck, and ended up in her shoulder.

With her life hanging in the balance, Malala was fortunate enough to be flown to the other side of the world to receive the lifesaving treatment that she needed, and luckily, Malala survived, she lived to share her story and stood before many cheering young people at ‘We day’, showing how she overcame her struggles (Which makes those that we face in England seem like nothing) in dire times.

Malala told us not to give up, she told us to love each other, and she told us that life is too short for hate.

I stood up, I clapped, I cheered.

I was completely awestruck that an amazing and compelling speech came from someone so young and so brave.

I truly learnt a lot from Malala, she taught the audience to overpower fear with bravery and courage… From what she said, millions of people globally could learn so much and together WE can make the world a better place…

As Ghandi said “Be the change you wish to see”. Malala is certainly living by this motto, as are others; Malala wasn’t the only inspiring young person to speak to us, we heard from thought provoking Molly Burke, who spoke so confidently to the audience, you wouldn’t even know that she couldn’t see you, because Molly is blind.

Molly is also a victim of bullying, yet she shared her story of overcoming the physical and mental pain that she had experienced, which has given her the confidence to speak to thousands of people at in one go, not stuttering once.

‘We Day’ would not have been possible if it weren’t for two brothers, Marc and Craig Kielburger, whom at the time were only teenagers compelled by a horrific headline in their local paper that stated “Battled child labour boy, 12, murdered”.

The story that followed was about a young boy named Iqbal Masih who was forced into labour at a carpet factory aged four, yet fought against it and then became an international figure for the fight against child labour by the age of 12 years old.

He became somewhat of a globe trotter and on a visit home, it’s thought that those who owned the carpet factory shot him to death, from this, a very silent, shy and stuttering Craig Kielburger broke his scholarly silence and spoke to his class about what he had read about and gained support from 11 of his classmates.

From this, Craig & co began the change, and as the years rolled by, they told us that many of their friends lost interest but they continued, and they told us, the audience repeatedly - “If You Want To Go Fast, Go Alone. If You Want To Go Far, Go Together”.

Together, they founded “Me to we”, a social enterprise scheme which donates half of its profits to “Free the children”, aiming to free children from all forms of depravity in the world.

Expanding their social enterprise has had a positive effect globally, enabling many young people to volunteer to help build schools and better lives in terribly deprived countries, giving many children the chance to be educated, something that is a basic human right.

If you ever get the chance, please, please, please check out this website, you will learn so much, honestly, it will be the most enriching time you would have spent on the internet, other than reading this masterpiece and making one of those funny “Sing It Kitty” video’s with your mum’s face.

Thank you for reading this, I’m glad I got to share with you the wisdom that was shared with me.

Until next time.

(P.S, I was about 12 meters away from Prince Harry… FYI)