I have to be honest, I did not really know what APTA’s Federal Advocacy Forum was when I registered to attend in 2019. All I knew was that it was the place to be if you wanted to be involved in professional advocacy, which was really great because my passion for advocacy was growing stronger every day.

Admittedly, I was both very interested and very nervous.

I didn’t know if I was prepared enough to talk to senators and representatives about the legislative issues currently happening regarding our profession.

I tried my best to stay up to date with those efforts and to think of ways that I could make them stand out when talking to politicians. That brought another problematic thought to my head though.

At the time, I was a second-year physical therapy student and I had not yet been on any full-time clinical affiliations. I wasn’t sure if I had enough experience to speak to any of the pressing issues we’d be discussing.

Even with all of that uncertainty I wanted to go and experience #PTAdvocacy in action and learn where I fit in to all of it.