The five weeks spent volunteering at Fighting Words NI have been some of the most unexpectedly formative experiences of my time as a Laidlaw Scholar. Coming in, I understood the organization's mission in the abstract—to give children and young people a creative voice. Leaving, I understand it in the specific: in Avery putting pen to paper the moment I stopped interrupting her, in a quiet teenager finding their footing halfway through a session, in a group of homeless young adults reshaping a familiar workshop structure into something entirely their own.

What struck me most across all five weeks was how intentional everything is. The props, the characters, the prompts, the illustration program—none of it is incidental. Every element is designed to make a child feel that their imagination is worth taking seriously. That philosophy quietly shaped the way I approached every task I was given, whether I was typing out a seven-year-old's alien story, deciphering handwritten pages from a community outreach event, or drafting a timestamped guide for teachers.

The placement also gave my Laidlaw research a practical dimension I hadn't anticipated. Observing how narrative structure and storytelling are used not just as creative tools but as confidence-building ones deepened my thinking in ways that reading alone couldn't have. 

Fighting Words NI reminded me that good creative education is less about teaching children to write, and more about convincing them that they already have something worth saying.