I was thinking about how I best can use this platform, and what kind of stories I would like to be able to share. While pondering what direction to take not only my Daily Kos account but the entire narrative of my campaign, I have decided I want to pave the way for anyone with a story that remotely resembles mine. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gen Z will carry a lot of weight in the political scheme nationwide in these next few years, and I am honored to have been empowered to become one of the first to seek change by running for public office.
After providing a little bit of a break down into how I entered public advocacy in my prior article, I think it may be important to provide context on how I developed the skills to get here. Since the age of 11, I have competed in speech and debate tournaments. Every single year since the sixth grade I have practiced research, speech writing, working with others on “uncomfortable” a.k.a. politically charged topics, and analyzing discourse from the inside out. Political discourse is inherently linked to me in the exact same way many students my age attach a sport to their personality. Writing contentions and conclusions were/are my field goals or touchdowns.
Once we hit high school, I enrolled in the “Legal Studies Academy” which is a city ran program inside one of the high schools. The LSA certainly carried a discussion/presentation heavy workload on students with the intention of working on each and every students ability to speak publicly, and to advocate for their own belief systems. Connecting the dots from my teachers and coaches led me to begin my own advocacy work. Starting in the written form with a summer internship I participated in with my local newspaper, The Virginian Pilot. I wrote about the local beekeeping community which required field work and interviewing that was taught and edited by professional journalists. These folks helped curve my style of speech and writing, and taught me how to keep an audience interested in what I have to say (hopefully it’s working haha).
The next step on my journey to advocacy was an internship I served with the federal probation office, in the upstairs of the closest federal courthouse. This is where I had the largest internal awakening. On my third day of being a fly on the courtroom wall, I watched a case involving a singular man whose only charge was being in the US ‘illegally.’ As the case unraveled, I learned through the public defender translating for the defendant that this young man had NEVER been to school in his life. He pleaded with the judge “I’m sorry your honor, I'm illiterate… even translated into Spanish I cannot understand.” He was scared and alone in a courtroom without breaking any other rules other than simply existing in the US without valid paperwork. I was heartbroken. I rushed to research asylum and immigration policy, I rushed to find an organization or a system or even a single human being who was working to fix the types of injustices like I had just observed. It was then and there that I realized that I, as a 16 year old boy, could have as much passion, and as much knowledge or experience on a topic as anyone else.
When I arrived at college, I continued my formally structured competitive debates. However I knew that these spaces that are tailored to have these discussions in a vacuum, and that if I wanted to make real impacts with my voice, I would have to step it up. This lead me to my increased involvement within the community, finding democratic chapters to help with and keeping myself busy with non-profit social activist groups.
Now, I intend to use my experiences as tools to empower everyone that will listen. Now more than ever we need diverse thinking, and young democrats around the country have the potential to shake up the status quo. If you are willing to help me do this, I will link my Actblue below.
secure.actblue.com/…