Poet Ali has visited CedarBridge Academy with Chain Reaction on several occasions and on each visit he is an inspiration to me.

He changed my mindset. I thought I was the only one who was dealing with struggles, but he showed me that everyone has struggles and that it is how you deal with them that matters.

Before running into Poet Ali, I didn’t think about people’s feelings or emotions, I only thought about myself, but he showed me a different way.

His raps and songs where he sings about his life inspired me. He did a freestyle rap to me, personally, in assembly. I cried and it woke me up. I started to feel. My dad was sick. I did not care about anyone. We struggled financially and I did not care about anyone. It was when Poet Ali sang to me that through his songs, his message, it woke me up.

When he offered the “Let ‘em Know Challenge”, I spent the whole day trying to think about who I should thank.

Should I thank my friends, or one of my family members, but when I looked at Poet Ali, I realised I should thank him for changing my life around when my life was in the gutter.

The “Let “em Know Challenge” asked you to thank someone for any purpose. The rationale behind the challenge was to be thankful for the people in your life and the gifts of your life.

I wrote this challenge because I wanted to change people’s hearts and mind about their life. I wanted to thank a lot of people that were there for me, but the one person I wanted to thank, in particular, was Poet Ali.

This was my letter of thanks for the challenge. My paragraph is based on my memory of my introduction to Poet Ali. I wrote:

“I want to share this moment with you. Two years ago when I was fifteen (S2) you were doing freestyling rap and chose three people to rap about. I was one of those three people.

“I was shy because I was bullied and teased. Because you did a rap about me, you made me learn that I was not alone. I’m not alone because you’re with me along with my friends. Now that I’m 17, going on 18, I realised that I have dreams and am not alone in conquering them.

“Today’s assembly about your five regrets before you die, I fall in the category of the last regret. I’ll regret not being happy. I couldn’t talk to you about it but hopefully in the future I will.”

Poet Ali has changed me in so many ways that can’t be explained. He has inspired me to be a good citizen and made me open to living life fully. The first time he came to CedarBridge he talked about struggles and I knew exactly what he was talking about because my dad is very ill.

When Poet Ali was talking to us in yesterday’s assembly (January 16), he said: “Never doubt yourself because doubting yourself isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

I was sitting next to my friend and saw the Azad watch bag and she said: “Caroline I have a feeling you’re going to win.”

When he changed the slide and showed my name, I was so shocked that I cried. Zainab comforted me. I had won the challenge. I’m very grateful to have won the challenge and I want to thank Poet Ali and Chain Reaction for chose me as their winner.