Self-advocacy is not something that happens naturally. Like many deaf or hard of hearing individuals, the author learned the art of advocacy through a trial-by-fire process in which his parents and himself struggled with the teachers and administrators of his public school. Together, they fought for and achieved programming that allowed the author to experience more than they would have received had the educators and experts determined his programming alone. In this article, the author discusses learning to advocate and why early parental involvement is key.