Fired up and Ready to Go!

The Defining Moments, Experiences and Passions that shaped my Rhetorical Citizenship Introduction When I was sixteen, I bought a refrigerator magnet that quoted, Go forth and set the world on fire. Since then, every day has been an attempt to accomplish that magnificent feat. From the experiences that Ive had along the way, I have developed a very active notion of rhetorical citizenship. These experiences shaped me to become a better rhetorical citizen by making me a strong person through hard work and perseverance, and this has made me very proud of the person I am today. Rhetoric and Citizenship Words Naturally Prone to Action While many early rhetoricians referred to rhetoric as a special practice, Isocrates regarded it as a philosophythe ability to speak, to reason, and to act (203). To Isocrates, rhetoric was natural and nothing out of the ordinary. For people, rhetoric is as right as rain. From the moment we learn to speak, we know what to say and how to say it to certain people. As we grow older, our awareness of rhetoric grows, and so does its usage in our speech. Therefore, rhetoric can be defined as the communication that we use to build our world and make sense of everything that it entails. Gerard A. Hauser once said that rhetoricis concerned with the use of symbols to induce social action. People have inherently learned how to tailor these symbols and used them not just to induce social action, but social interaction: the expression of our thoughts, feelings, and requests to others. These social interactions are one of the factors in the characterization of citizenshiphow engaged one is in the community and the means through which they are involved, which determines what kind of citizen they are. In her piece In the Name of Citizenship, Amy Wan describes that some teachers encourage citizenship through civic

engagement in classroom activities, explaining how the classroom serves as a protopublic space for participation through providing a training ground for active and participatory citizenship (31). However, I feel that the training ground that she describes is not enough for students to get a taste of what citizenship should bethe epitome of civic engagement, which can be described as active involvement in ones community. One must be willing to experience citizenship in the real world. With these definitions of rhetoric and citizenship in mind, its no surprise that my definition of rhetorical citizenship has been (and is still being) shaped by my life experiences, all of which fit the aforementioned definitions of rhetoric and citizenship. Rhetorical Citizenship Words that foster Experiences, Engagement, and Motivation So far, I have come to learn that experiences, motivation, and engagement are largely intertwined by communication. Experiences cannot be created with an absence of words, communities are not engaged unless mutual experiences have been shared, and motivation arises from articulating the thoughts to pursue more experiences and engagement. Based on this sentiment and my own experiences, I will define rhetorical citizenship as using social interaction to create your own experience in engaging yourself in a community, and using those experiences to articulate to others why they should engage themselves in and/or support this community. I have defined rhetorical citizenship in this way for a few reasons. First, I have found that creating my experience enhanced my motivation to better my community. Second, I think that self-motivation has been the driving factor behind everything. Third, Ive found that sharing my experiences and motivation with others helped them find their own reasons to actively participate in the community. I will further explain the reasoning for my definition by examining two major sponsors of my rhetorical citizenship.

My Sponsors of Rhetorical Citizenship As I mentioned before, I strongly believe that rhetorical citizenship is not something that is learned in the classroom: in order to be engaged, you must be willing to give yourself to a community and learn from its ways. Therefore, sponsors have been my teachers of rhetorical citizenship, helping me to create my experience in my community by teaching me the lessons that helped me thrive in its presence. The two sponsors that I will examine were very different from each other. One of them, Ms. Flynn, the vice principal of my high school, was a sponsor who, at the time, was negative, but I realize now that her actions taught me how to really fight for what I believed in, which greatly contributed to my rhetorical citizenship and my motivation to get others engaged. The second sponsor came in the form of the 2010 Midterm Election campaign. This campaign helped me grow as a rhetorical citizen, it helped me to pursue my passion of motivating others to get engaged, and it taught me what it really meant to be part of a community. Ms. Flynn Igniter of my Tenacity The woman who turned out to be my sponsor of rhetorical citizenship ignored me for the first two months of our acquaintance. I was the president of my high schools Best Buddies chapter, and she was the vice principal who never paid any attention to her students. Fighting for Ms. Flynns minimal attention taught me to how to really fight for the communities that I believed in, and how to use my experiences to articulate reasons why others should support a cause. Best Buddies truly needed support from the schools administration, but how could anyone support an organization if they didnt think it was worth their time? Ms. Flynn obviously held this attitude. Eventually, my patience and sympathy for Ms. Flynn completely

disappearedit was absolutely unacceptable that she ignored the growing strength of my organization and its lasting impacts. One night, in a frustrated and desperate attempt to vie for her attention, I sent Ms. Flynn a nasty but professional email, explaining one of our Buddies uplifting and tearjerking experience with Best Buddies and her love for the club, and reminding Ms. Flynn that of all people, she, the vice president and ESE Coordinator of the school, should support Best Buddies and its mission to grow life-long friendships between people with and without disabilities. This email was my last attempt in elicit some kind of social interaction from Ms. Flynn. I felt that passing on these sentiments and experiences to her was crucial in giving the organization any attention, because it paired a real, life-changing experience with the need for the support of the administration. This moment also taught me not only to stand firmly behind what I believed, but to stand by my actions as well. Ms. Flynns disrespect toward Best Buddies reminded me of the life-changing experiences and reasons why I loved the organization so much, and why I was so fired up to fight for its mission. When writing that email, the pride that came from those reasons is what drove me to actually send the emailthere was a burning desire for Ms. Flynn to know what amazing things were happening in Best Buddies. The next morning, I sat in Ms. Flynns office while she scolded me for the email I sent. I didnt carethat email was the reason that I was sitting in her office, and I was going to use that opportunity for social interaction to demand her respect for my organization. In the end, Ms. Flynn gave my Best Buddies chapter the respect and support it deserved. Ms. Flynns disrespect drove me (in frustration, Ill admit) to stand up and fight on the offensive for my community. She had ignited my tenacity, and from that point, it became clear that I no longer had intentions of toning down my beliefs or my eagerness to get others to support themso much that I had the audacity to stand up and confront the vice

president of my school, and then immediately persuade her to respect my organization. This memory has had a lasting impact on my rhetorical citizenship, as it constantly reminds me of the reasons why I do what I do, and why I encourage others to do the same. The next major sponsor of my rhetorical citizenship further strengthened that sentiment with the best experience that Ive ever hadthe 2010 Midterm Campaign. 2010 Midterm Campaigns Community Engagement Coming straight out of high school to UCF, my experience with Best Buddies had left me wanting more. Within my first week of college, I became an intern for the 2010 Midterm Campaign to get Democrats elected, and when the elections ended, I had learned much more than Id expected. The campaign strengthened my electoral rhetorical citizenship, it further justified my passions to get others to engage in the community, and it taught me what it really means to be part of a community. The campaign made me hit the ground running. It felt like there were a hundred campaign activities that I had to learn how to do, and I would just have to learn how to master them on the way. Of course, I wasnt alone. There were fifteen other interns that were sharing my same experience. Together, we all formed a mutual sponsorship. We learned new tips from each other, we supported each others efforts, and we learned how to get along with one another, simply because we were going to be stuck together for the next three months. However, that I have to get along with people sentiment quickly disappeared, and we became a close-knit family. I couldnt wait to phone bank or canvass with them each day, and for the eighteen hours a day we were awake, we were together, and we were bonding. My social interactions with my family greatly contributed to my growth as a rhetorical citizen and my experience as a campaign internI labeled it as the greatest experience of my life after a week. These experiences made me part of the

community; I knew that my efforts had a direct effect on the community in which I was participating. These experiences helped me to develop my own personal reasons and passions for what I was doing, and vice versa; my reasons and passions enhanced my experiences as well. The two factors were simultaneously building upon each other to create a motivation that was absolutely undeniable. This motivation felt intrinsic, and it became a reflection of who I was. Theres no wonder as to why it felt that waythat motivation became articulated into the phone for five hours a night for three months, and it instinctively became the reason why I wanted others to get engaged too. Whether it was over the phone or face-to-face, I always extended an invitation to others to jump in and embrace this same experience, or at least, persuaded them to engage at their level of preference. The campaign temporarily turned me into a full-time rhetorical citizen, making me articulate my beliefs in hopes of getting others involved for three months straight. My passion to motivate others to engage themselves grew during this time, and it still remains today. I learned that nothing beats the feeling of empowering another student. This flame of motivation that I gained from the 2010 Midterm Elections Campaign will probably never burn out. The passions and motivations that I picked up continuously fuel my rhetorical citizenshipthey constantly drive me to get that extra voter registration form filled out, to make those last ten phone calls, or at the very least, remind me of the stakes that arise from non-participation in rhetorical citizenship. Conclusion My experiences have led me to conclude that rhetorical citizenship can be defined as using social interaction to create your own experience in engaging yourself in a community, and using those experiences to articulate to others why they should engage themselves in and/or support this community. Through my experiences, I have found that

creating my experience enhanced my motivation to better my community, my experiences helped enhance my passions, and that sharing those experiences and passions makes them more likely to get involved. I am very proud of the rhetorical citizen I am today, and from here, my rhetorical citizenship will lead me into even bigger and better things.

Works Cited Hauser, Gerard A. Introduction to Rhetorical Theory." 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2002. 3. Isocrates. Isocrates I. Trans. David C. Mirhady and Yun Lee Too. Austin: U of Texas P, 2000. (excerpt) Wan, Amy J. "In the Name of Citizenship: The Writing Classroom and the Promise of Citizenship." College English 74.1 (2011): 28-49. Print.