In the 2020-2021 pro-democracy protests in Thailand, an unprecedented number of high school students participated on all levels: from organizing rallies to small symbolic actions. To better understand this phenomenon, we engaged 691 Thai students from diverse backgrounds to write a letter to a recipient on the other side of the political divide. Participants were asked to reflect upon their hopes and fears for Thailand's political future and explain why their civic engagement is personally, socially, and politically important. Utilizing the ladder of youth participation and other succeeding frameworks in the field, we explored the students' perception of their political participation in three facets: aspirations of young people, their justification for their participation, and responses from the adults in their lives. We find that while the students have clear and well-articulated reasons for their participation, they are hindered and resisted by their parents or teachers who disagree with their political views.