When I learned what advocacy was

I just completed my first week of Harvard Debate Camp.  I'm taking the public speaking and argumentation course and yesterday we presented our advocacy speeches.  I spoke about student loan debts in the US, their effect on the economy, and more importantly (the advocacy part) what we can do about the ever increasing amount of debt.

This past week, I was a part of one very important lecture where I learned what makes for an advocacy speech?  And to a greater extent, what is advocacy.  My instructor described it better than the dictionary, and her definition requires that all parts be met.  

Advocacy is any act of public risk-taking that demands a change to the status quo. 

 If there's no risk, it's not advocacy.  If it's not public, it's not advocacy.  If it doesn't demand change, it's not advocacy.  My instructor changed my views on advocacy.  I see it differently now, and what I once thought was me being an "advocate", I no longer think.  Posting messages of love on Facebook in support of a recent natural disaster is no longer what I consider advocacy because there's no risk.  Thinking about things I care about in my head but that never leave my brain no longer count as something I "advocate" for because it's not public.  

This week, I stood up in public, in Harvard Yard.  I was the first person in my group to present my speech on student loan debts, so there was no pre-established audience.  One of my jobs as the first speaker was to attract an audience from the general audience.  So  I stood in the shade, under one big oak tree, on top of a rickety green lawn chair.  And I began to speak…more like shout.  I caught the attention of people hundreds of feet away, some waiting in line to touch the left foot of the John Harvard statue, some walking on the paths around where I was standing.  And I recited an abridged version of my speech and demanded for action.  It was nerve wracking and by the end, my voice hurt.  No, it wasn’t just sore…it hurt from all the shouting I’d done to get attention and draw an audience.  Since I was the first person to present, there was no audience, but slowly after people began to see what my peers were doing, an audience gathered.  I went again for the second time at the end of all the speeches.  This time, I had a small audience of about 30 people.  I tried as clearly as I could to articulate my solutions…my “call to actions” as they call in public speaking.  I’ve misperceived advocacy up until now.  I simply said I was an advocate for something, not really knowing what advocacy should encompass.  Now I know that what my peers and I did in Harvard Yard, in public, on a hot summer day, this was advocacy.