Personal Essay Example: Tamyra Mensah-Stock Is My Idol

Tamyra Mensah-Stock is my idol, and she inspires me on a daily basis. She has faced several adversities throughout her life. Her father died when she was seventeen years old. She absorbs a lot of hate since she is black and a female athlete. She is so amazing because all of the hatred she has experienced, along with the death of her father, drives her even farther.  Which paid off when she went to the Olympics and became the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Female Freestyle Olympics and just the second black woman to earn a gold medal in the Olympics. 

Tamyra has a twin sister Tarkyia Mensah-Stock. Growing up Tarkyia was always the wrestler and Tamyra was the pretty track runner. Tarkyia talked Tamyra into wrestling and at first she was hesitant but now she eats, sleeps and breathes wrestling. Moments after Tamyra won the 2020 Freestyle Olympics she told interviewers she was giving her winnings to her mother since they had struggled a lot after her father died. Tamyra and her mother, Shonda Wells, received a custom made food truck from Cruising Kitchens a few days after the Olympics. Tamyras dad passed away when she was only at the age of seventeen. He fell asleep driving home from one of Tamyras wrestling tournaments. Tamyra blamed wrestling for her father's death and nearly quit on many occasions. After grieving her father's death, she felt she had to wrestle for him. She pushed herself every day, and by the time she was twenty-eight during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she became an Olympic Champion and will be wrestling for the World Championship in a few weeks.

Tamyra began wrestling as a sophomore in high school. Her sister persuaded her into it, and she first wanted to stop since she didn't understand why everyone was sweating on each other and trying to knock her down. She was intent on quitting until her sister convinced her that they'd go to their first Duel and if she still wanted to quit, she could. She went to the meet, and since that night, her primary concentration has been wrestling. She advanced from 138 to 165 pounds, was a state runner-up her sophomore year, and a state champion her final two years of high school. She had a goal of making it to the Olympics, and despite the fact that everyone at her school called her names and made fun of her, she made her dreams come true.  

She became the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Female Freestyle Olympics and only the second black woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics. She also became the 39th woman to win gold in the Olympics and one of ten women going to Norway in a few weeks for the World Championships. Since she is black and grew up in a tough neighborhood of Katy, Texas, she is frequently classified as a "drug dealer" or "gang banger."

She is such an inspiration because, despite everyone saying terrible things about her, she continues to prove them wrong and shows people the real her, not what everyone else wants to see.

Tamyra Mensah-Stock went through a lot of challenges in her life. All those challenges shaped her into the person she is now. She inspires me and I can relate to her because she didn't want to wrestle at first she got talked into it, her father passed away when she was at a young age, and she gets a lot of hate for being a female athlete. Her dreams are unfolding after all these years of hard dedication and hate she's received.