For my student teaching application I had to come up with a "carefully crafted autobiography." What on earth does that mean?! Since the application itself has the more serious details, I decided to take more of an anecdotal approach. This is what it shaped into. My hope is that the cooperating teacher who reads this will get a sense of who Amanda is, not just a list of the facts.
My name is Amanda Kaye Mair, and my life has been a series
of fortunate events. Cliché as that may sound; it is more and more true every
day. From horses to service, dreams and schemes to sweet potato pie, and on to
special education, my life has been one grand adventure after another.
I grew up in
Grantsville, Utah. One of the advantages of growing up in a small town is that
we were fortunate enough to have horses. I remember the first time my Dad put
me on a horse: I was a little over five years old, and I got to ride Chico, our
twenty-something year old Mustang. Chico’s fastest speed was a fast walk, but
to my five year old self, that was speeding! Chico “ran away” with me and I
fell off on to the hard ground. My Dad picked me up, dusted me off, and that
same day put me right back on Chico. No matter how many times I’ve fallen off a
horse over the years, my Dad always picked me up, dusted me off, and put me
back on the horse. From this I’ve learned that sometimes in life you fall, and
it might hurt, but the important thing is to get back up and keep pushing on. Also,
I’ve learned that my Dad is always there for me, willing to dust me off when I
fall and help me get right back up.
I have always been a
daydreamer, and a big dreamer. If I see something that catches my eye, I set my
heart on it and go after it. When I was in high school I became a member of Key
Club International. This is where I found my niche: service. I loved the
feeling of volunteering and helping others, and I found friends with similar
ideals. I went to my first convention for the Utah-Idaho District, and there I
found my biggest dream up to that point: becoming a Lieutenant Governor on the
District Board. As I saw the Board members sitting up in front of the meetings,
leading discussions about service and leadership, I knew that it was something
that I wanted to be a part of. For the next year I worked on preparing myself
for this position. I dreamed about it night and day, and finally the moment
arrived. The position of Lieutenant Governor is voted on by members of each
division, so I found myself running a campaign. I came up with fun slogans,
prepared my platform, and worked on getting votes. When the announcement of the
winners from each division were made and my name was called as Lieutenant
Governor for Division 8A, my heart soared, knowing that a dream had literally
come true.
When I came home
from the convention I found that my family was just as excited as I was. The
reality of my new position sank in very quickly, as I learned that my responsibilities
included visiting all of the high schools in my Division and checking on their
Key Club branches. For a shy, small town girl, this was a huge feat. As I
prepared myself to go to my first club meeting at another school I was nervous,
until I put on my name badge: Amanda Mair, Lieutenant Governor Division 8A. As
the magnet clicked I became the person on my name badge: confident, bold, a
leader. Over the course of the year I became that person more and more, and not
just when I was wearing my badge. I floated on cloud nine for that year as
Lieutenant Governor, and though I was saddened when it ended, I was excited for
the new experiences that this dream come true had prepared me for.
My service in Key
Club motivated me to seek out ways to help others as I moved on to the College
of Eastern Utah. There I found the SUN (Serving Utah Network) Center, and more
opportunities to serve than I had ever imagined. I was fortunate enough to be
accepted as a leader my first semester, and began coordinating efforts to get
volunteers for the Castle Valley Center, a school for students with special
needs. It was during this time of volunteering at the Castle Valley Center that
I first realized my passion and desire to work with individuals with disabilities.
I found that working with such individuals was something that came naturally to
me, while others would say that they could never do anything like that. My
heart grew and expanded to love all of the students I got to work with, and I
realized that my path in life would eventually lead to a career in the field of
Special Education.
The path to becoming
a Special Educator has been winding, and I have made a detour or two along the
way. One of these detours was to the South, Alabama and Mississippi to be
precise. I had the amazing opportunity of serving as a missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in these two states. Here my heart
grew to love people I had never met, and a way of life that was very different
from my life back in Utah. As a missionary I had the opportunity to serve in
many capacities: at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, soup kitchens around
Thanksgiving and Christmas, people we came in contact with, and nursing homes.
I also got a chance to teach. I discovered that teaching is something that
comes naturally to me, whether it’s teaching others about my church, or
teaching struggling students. My time in the South was truly a fortunate time.
Now I am fortunate
enough to be looking at the opportunities that are unfolding before me as I
conclude my degree in Special Education through Utah State University. As I
stated before, my life has been a series of fortunate events, not all of which
will fit into this document. (Don’t worry, when I publish my memoirs you will
have a chance to read all of my fortunate events!) All of these fortunate events
have shaped me, have shaped my life. I stand here on the brink of my next dream
coming true, and I know that I am ready for this because of all that my life experiences
have taught me. I can confidently walk towards my dreams, knowing that if I
dream it and work for it, it will happen.
