I am writing this reflection after finishing Write for Rights. This event really tested by commitment. I had made the decision not to sleep at all, so that I could really feel a sense of achievement, that I had completed the full experience of the event, and that I had written as many letters as I could possibly write. Staying up for 24 hours does not sound as difficult as it was. I have stayed up all night before, and it was not as hard. However, I think the reason why staying awake the whole 24 hours in this event was so hard is because I was trying to write consistently for the entire time. I took occasional breaks to eat and walk around, but spent most of the time writing. After a few hours this really tested my self-discipline, because my hands would get extremely tired, and writing similar letters over and over again made it really hard to stay concentrated. I think that by doing my best to concentrate, and managing to write over 100 letters (this was more than it sounds, since each one is about the length of an A4 piece of paper) I really showed by commitment to this CAS experience. I felt that after spending so much time planning, and missing lessons in order to attend, I may as well take the experience as seriously as I could. In the previous years, I feel that although I was still very dedicated, I didn’t manage to write as many letters, and a lot of them were a lot less meaningful. Although I am aware that many of these letters will not be read by the recipients, it is still worth coming together to write them, and trying to make them as good as possible, so that if 1 of the 1000 letters gets read, it has a chance to make an impact on the person we are sending it to. I feel that by being a part of the planning process and the event, I have shown my commitment to the movement towards improved treatment of minority groups, such as refugees, around the world. Our service group is often questioned, because people do not think that the event will be that impactful, but I feel like we are still playing a part in the bigger movement throughout the world.
