Amanda Gorman is not taking her eye off the presidential prize anytime soon.
Since skyrocketing into the eye of the general public after performing a rousing recitation of her poem “The Hill We Climb” during President Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration ceremony, the 23-year-old poet has been vocal about her plans to run for president of the United States in 2036.
The goal has been one she’s kept at heart since she was in elementary school after a teacher off-handedly suggested she think about a political run because young Gorman told the class she “wanted to change the world.”
“I remember being around 11 years old, and I was in class talking very passionately as I do about things I wanted to change in the world,” the “Change Sings” author told “TODAY” hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. “My teacher said to me quite jokingly, ‘Hahaha, you should run for president,’ and I said ‘Yes, I should.’ “
She continued, “And so it became this ambition where, for me, it means that the hopes that I have for making the world a better place, I have to think more expansively beyond poetry. It’s not just writing, it’s doing right as well. And if I can do that while changing political institutions, changing the quality of life in my own home country, I think that’s a great extension of poetry.”
Gorman’s reasoning for being so open about her presidential aspirations in interviews is simple: If she treats her dreams as if they’re within reach, they have a better chance of becoming reality.
Photo Credit: @amandascgorman/Instagram
“I think to make the impossible more proximate, you have to treat it as if it’s in reaching distance,” Gorman told the Wall Street Journal, adding, “I’ve always understood the potential of the presidency or political office to both be terrific and also toxic and terrible.”
Judging from the impressive and prestigious career she’s already established at a young age, it appears as if Gorman 2036 could be a future possibility indeed.
