It’s an unfortunate thing to say, but having your faith restored in humanity has become a rare occurrence in this world. With all of the current distractions regarding the government shutdown, chemical weapons attacks in Syria and Miley Cyrus, it has become difficult to get past the endless amount of mind-numbing static that seems to plague our thoughts and beliefs.

Yet, in that rare moment when something happens that seems to transcend the day-to-day grind and utterly self-centered culture we find ourselves in, we can find a moment of Zen in which understanding who and what really matters is priority number one.

Last week, I experienced such a moment when I was fortunate enough to catch Jon Stewart’s interview of 16-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai.

I first heard of Malala last year around this time when reports of her near-fatal encounter with the Taliban went viral. On October 6th, 2012 while riding home in a school bus in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, a member of the Taliban stopped and entered her bus, asked which of the girls was Malala and then proceeded to shoot her in the face at point blank range.

After recovering from her life-threatening injuries Malala could have stopped her activism. Malala could have let fear and intimidation overcome her goal in achieving widespread education for women. Yet Malala did not succumb to the cowardly tactics of a terrorist regime, but rather became more empowered in her objectives.

In July Malala made her first public speech since she was brutally attacked at an assembly of the United Nations. During that speech she said something that captured the essence of her character, stating that “The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

In her recent interview on The Daily Show, when asked what she would do if confronted by the Taliban again, Malala replied “If you hit a Talib with your shoe, there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty or harshly. You must fight others through peace and through dialogue and through education […] I would even want education for your children as well.”

It’s not the fact that Malala went through a tragic experience, but it is what she represents about this world, often escaping an American perspective, that makes her so influential. She is the personification of the unrelenting quest to extend unrestricted access to education and allow repressed individuals to make a serious attempt at improving their life situation. Malala Yousafzai may be the most inspiring individual of our generation and I thank her for her unyielding strength and commitment to what she fundamentally believes in.

Malala and her cause really matter, and I think that we can all learn from her example.

Tony Trenzeluk ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science, international studies and history.