Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old poet, recited her poem The Hill We Climb at the recent Presidential Inauguration (就职) Ceremony. Her words and performance were wonderful and were admired across the world. But what is even more wonderful is the story of how Amanda arrived at this moment and the lessons she offers other kids around the world.
Amanda was raised by a single mother, Joan Wicks, in Los Angeles. There was very limited television watching in their house. Encouraged by her mother, who was a teacher, Amanda fell in love with reading and writing. She gained confidence in these areas. Her passion for poetry started when she was about 8 years old.
But despite her interests and talents, she had some obstacles. Amanda has a listening processing disorder and is very sensitive to sound. She also had a speech disorder during childhood. This caused her to participate in speech treatment which helped her to turn her obstacles into gifts and strengths. As she told The Harvard Gazette in 2018, "I always saw it as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my listening and speech skills, I became really good at reading and writing."
Amanda started to dream of becoming president when she was in 6th grade. As Amanda became more confident, she became more driven to transform the world for good. She went on to earn a degree at Harvard University. And then, Amanda became the world's first Youth Poet Laureate (获奖者) in history!
While Amanda looked calm, cool, and collected at the inauguration, she admits she is always nervous, like many of us, about public speaking. To ease this, she developed a spell that she recites to give herself confidence in moments of doubt, "I am the daughter of black writers. We are descendants (子孙) of freedom fighters who broke through chains and changed the world."
