Grand Jury Prize 2012

The Grand Jury Prize is my annual thingy that acts as an alternative to first place, in my list of the Favourite Things of the year. It's not 11th place. It's not the Best Thing. It's just another possible contender for the first-place standing of a given year.

Yes, I know I literally just did something like this, but that was for 2011. Because I'm a procrastinator. My selection for the year of 2012(which I'd still say is pretty late) is as follows:

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In 2012, a Pakistani girl named Malala Yousafzai wanted an education. She fought for it. The Taliban declined her request in the most polite and dignified way they know how, by shooting her in the neck.

She's recovering. And now she wants to go back to school.

Courtesy of Malala Press Office/AP

Folks, be honest: If you tried to go to school, and somebody shot you for it, and you somehow survived... would you really try again? Consider the lives you've led. Consider the frustration, the embarrassment, the awkward hormones and self-loathing of public school. Remember the incompetent teachers with personal vendettas, the social cliques, the acne, the puberty and all of that wonderful stuff that greeted you every day in your teenage years.

If someone told me to not relive the horrors of High School or else they'd shoot me, I'd comply. No hesitation. And even if I tried anyway, got shot and survived, I wouldn't tempt fate. That's because I am a coward and I hated growing up. But then, I'm not a kid who grew up in culture that wanted me dead for trying to grow up.


I gotta hand it to her. A 15-year old girl has bigger balls than I do.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Wreck-It Ralph, Gorillaz' "The Fall", Archer, Adventure Time. 

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~A.H.