Complaints from students are rare at the college level, but when they do happen, it offers a priceless opportunity to explore the value system of those students and encourage them to write about their beliefs and the alienation they are experiencing. While a majority of the students take writing as a requirement and seek only to earn the requisite credit for their program, many bring passionate convictions into class--convictions that can engender some very empowering and passionate moments if they are allowed to incorporate those values into their written work. A complaint during a spooky story assignment leads the author to rediscover the importance of liberatory, student-driven writing. The author designed an assignment that allowed students to articulate ideas and convictions about the subject. The assignment, called "This I Believe," is based on the NPR program of the same name in which readers express their strong feelings about a topic of their choosing. The author stresses the need to enkindle the voice inside the students that begins with their concerns, their beliefs, and their worlds. The assignment "This I Believe" was successful for the author, but the key is simply to transcend the functional literacy by fostering a critical literacy, powerful literacy, political literacy which enables the growth of genuine understanding and control of all the spheres of social life.