My Senior Activism

My high school required every senior to write a ten to a fifteen-page research paper on an issue or crisis that you were interested in and in order to graduate you would have to get a passing grade. For the research paper, you had to pick a topic that you were passionate about and one that you are willing to work on your whole senior year. The research paper would include everything you learned about while researching, your activism, what you did to solve the issue and lastly, why you chose the topic and how it changed you as a person. My writing would determine whether I graduated. I had worked hard for four years and I did not want a fifteen-page paper to set me back. This was not just a research paper, it was also my senior activism project
But I made sure that I chose a topic that I am passionate about and so went with the Higher Education for Undocumented students, which mainly focused on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act) I knew that I would write more about something that I deeply care about and wanted to make a difference and was an issue that I had been working on since my Sophomore year. I had volunteered with organizations that helped undocumented immigrants and students. When my writing process began I remember freezing. I went blank and did not know what to start with. I had all my research and activism with me. I even had quotes and experiences from undocumented students that I wanted to add to my paper, but somehow I did not know what to write. My civics teacher noticed that I had been putting off my writing and she called me up in class. When I sat with her we chatted about my research and she had seen all the work that I did on the issue and was surprised that I did not know how I start my paper. I told her that writing is not my strong suit and I was scared that I would not graduate. She said that I should not worry about my writing. Her advice was to just start writing about what I cared about and that there is a reason why I choose I chose my topic and should focus on that and not on the actual writing itself. Her advice helped me because I realized that worrying about my writing was dragging me down and that I was missing the point of the Activism project. I then started to write about my issue and I did not let my writing put me down. I focused more on my topic and what I did for my activism. By not obsessing about my writing I was able to finish my first draft n one week and for the rest of the year, I worked on getting feedback and editing. What I learned from this experience was that