This extroverted person wasn’t concerned with how the world viewed her, as long as she was able to put a smile on people’s faces. She was always considered one of the boys and she spent most of her days singing Frozen songs and dancing on TikTok with her mom and playing video games with her brothers. She is used to being the glue in her family because her smile holds everyone together. Growing up life was challenging for her beginning with the divorce of her parents to the divorce of her mom and her stepdad later down the road. For years she was known as the innocent unicorn-sparkles, ray of sunshine type of girl, but no one could tell the amount of pain she hid behind her innocent smile. Most nights she’d stay up late crying, wishing the people she loved wouldn’t treat her so poorly, with only her pet bunny, Boo, to comfort her. Her friends seemed to be preoccupied with their own drama and she felt as if she had to be the therapist of the group, even when she needed someone to be there for her. When she finally arrived in high school, life seemed to be getting better.

This stellar student was placed on our Varsity Track team her very first year at Santiago. She started off running the 4 by 1 with a time of 14.01 for her 100-meter split time, a long jump of 15’1, and a triple jump of 32’1. She began to meet some people who she would say saved her life and began a love story you’d only find in movies. She met the love of her life, in December of 2019. Her friendship with this girl caused her great confusion regarding her own sexuality. She started to become jealous when this friend flirted with other girls but continued to believe she was straight. She would continue to flirt with this friend and when her friend confessed her feelings for her, Shaylee rejected her and started to become distant. After a few months of confusion and tension between the 2, due to distance caused by COVID-19 quarantine, Shaylee began to ultimately accept her feelings for this girl and began dating her in June of 2021. Now she is comfortable as a proud lesbian woman with the love of her life who she is proud she didn’t let get away from her. She made the SHS hip-hop team her sophomore year and continue to compete to her current year where her team has earned the title of Division champions. She aims to be hip-hop and track captain her senior year but doubts this due to her many absences. As for her track career her sophomore year, her girlfriend who she only refers to as her wife inspired her to try hurdles for the first time. All though she was nervous, she jumped into it not knowing anything about it, and continued to progress. In her long jump she broke her personal record with an amazing jump of 17’ 0.5, she broke her personal record in the triple jump with a jump of 34’0 feet, and for the first time in doing hurdles, she ran a 100 meter hurdle time of 20.74 and a 300 meter hurdle time of 51.70. This year she continued hurdles with astounding times of 15.86 in the 100-meter hurdles and 49.26 in the 300-meter hurdles. She currently jumps a 17’3 personal record in the long jump and an outstanding 36’1 personal record for the triple jump, which she has a chance at progressing in as she continues on to CIF Championships. 

When asked to who she would credit her success, Shaylee responds, “I would credit my mom and the Ford twins who continued to motivate me and push me to be my best. I’d also give credit to myself for taking myself out of my comfort zone and taking the time to learn how to improve in new events and believe in myself.” When asked about what she would say to other LGBTQ members who are currently going through the state of confusion she went through, she says, “Take the time to figure yourself out and don’t hurt the people around you by doing it, because I did, but luckily my wife was an amazing person and looked past that. Also don’t feel the pressure to put labels on yourself because I know these feelings can be fluid or change over time. Just be true to yourself and don’t let other people’s opinions affect who you believe you are.” Shaylee uses her passion to push herself to the best of her abilities to inspire her to study rocket science as an aerospace engineer. She says she loves the thought of doing things that only a small amount of people can do and aerospace engineering calls her name. We should be proud to have people like Shaylee Mutka, who represents Santiago High School as a stellar Santiago junior. Shaylee shows responsibility, has integrity, achieves greatness, respects the people around her, and knows herself better than anyone can. She is smart, talented, and super athletic and I’m proud to say she is my best friend and determined to be my sister-in-law.