We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mikayla Monnie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mikayla, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I work as an American Sign Language interpreter. This has put me in many different situations and areas of interpreting. I mostly work in K-12 education. It’s consistent, familiar and comfortable. I’ve been trying to grow my skills and areas of experience by working additional jobs. It’s common for interpreters to work for several companies. Since I started working in different fields of interpreting, I started to grow in my confidence with myself and my skills. I had the opportunity to interpret for a concert. I told the supervisor for this job that I wanted to do the concert even though I was a less experienced interpreter than my colleagues. I hoped I’d get put on the job. I knew this artist well and felt confident I could do a good job. I was assigned the concert! Yay! I was so excited! I was listening to the music for weeks. I prepared as much as I could. The day came and I was stressed. I had never done a concert. I didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully I was working with another very skilled interpreter who had done concerts before. She was a huge support. I was stressing out before we started. She calmed my nerves and reassured me that I could do it. The stadium was loud. The music was much louder than I expected. It was harder to hear the performers than I thought it would be. But I stayed confident and went with the changes. That concert ended up being one of the best nights of my life! I felt so euphoric standing up there interpreting in the spotlight. It was a feeling I hadn’t experienced before. And one I won’t forget! I felt like a rockstar was I interpreted the words of the songs into American Sign Language. I felt skilled and talented. I felt capable. The fears I had before went away. It truly was the best feeling and a highlight of my career.
Mikayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m an Oregon native and have lived in Utah for several years. I work within the Deaf community as an American Sign Language/English interpreter. I work in several areas within the community. Working in K-12 education is my primary job. I really enjoy working with children and watching them in their knowledge and skill. Often Deaf children experience language deprivation or lack of access to sign language in their home. I’m a language model to the students I work with. I give them access to their classroom through ASL and help them to learn the language that was made for them. It wasn’t an easy journey to become an interpreter. I failed the certification exams multiple times. I almost gave up and changed my career. I tried the test one last time and finally passed it! It was a very exciting day! I’m
now working on advancing my certification so I can do more work in the community.
I’ve recently started a small cake business on the side. I’ve always loved baking and being creative. It’s fun to try to make new things. I’ve wanted to do more with cakes. So now I created an instagram page for it and I’m finding different opportunities to make cakes! It’s fun seeing a recipe and trying it out. I need more practice and experience baking so I can become more skilled. I’ve been doing cakes for friends and look forward to selling cakes and desserts!
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish that I had immersed myself in the Deaf community earlier on in my journey to becoming an interpreter. I was so scared to try signing with Deaf people. I worried my skills weren’t good enough. It held me back by not just trying. I think my signing skills would have improved faster if I was willing to try and maybe mess up. Now that I’m very involved in the community, I really admire the beginning signers I’ve met who go to events or activities even when their signing is limited. I wish I had been that brave.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
About a year ago, I decided that I would try to become the best interpreter that I could be. I wasn’t going to compare myself to more experienced interpreters. I wasn’t going to envy them or be hard on myself if I wasn’t like them. I was going to work to be the best that I could be. That meant taking assignments outside of my comfort zone. I would attend more workshops and learn from people in the field. I would do whatever I could to improve my skills, challenge myself and to become an amazing interpreter.
As an interpreter, a lot of what I do is confidential. I can’t go into the details of it on social media. So my content is about other things. I’m a big believer in being optimistic and creating the life you want for yourself. I try to make my social media pages uplifting, real and inspiring. I’m single at 31 which isn’t common in Utah. I’ve spent the last few years making my life how I want it. I’ve traveled, learned new hobbies, and created amazing memories. I’m also real about the struggles of being single and the feelings of loneliness. It’s because I go out and live my life instead of waiting for life to happen that I get through the challenges I face. I want my page to be a place people can come and feel uplifted. Where people feel inspired to travel alone or try something new.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mustbethemonnie and @cakes.bykaykay
