9 Multimodal Essay

Meg’n essay

Photo essay

TO: Jennifer Anderson

FROM: Meg’n Blundell

DATE: September 06, 2023

SUBJECT: Multi-modal Personal Essay Reflective Memo

I have been wrestling for many years in multiple different schools. It is a sport that I have a strong passion for and have always had a love hate relationship with. I have moved around a lot growing up and attended many different schools. Wrestling for multiple teams has allowed me to see the diversity but also the commonalities. One of those being that women do not make up a very big percentage of the wrestling community. It really hurt seeing the boys bullying the other girls for wanting to join, which prevented me from having other girls on the mat. Therefore it is something I sought to fix. I use a variety of rhetorical strategies (ethos, pathos, logos) in my slideshow to educate my audience about how difficult it was for women to participate in this sport without facing challenges.

My slide mostly consists of pictures of me growing up in the sport. I wanted to show how being the only girl for a while was extremely difficult. As well as the progress and changes that have grown over the years. As you go through my slideshow you will drastically see the difference in numbers and attitude. For example, in slide 1 It shows me being the only little girl in a group full of boys. Once compared to slide 2 you will see how I am with multiple other girls who enjoy the sport as much as I do. The photos I have chosen to use are all personal photos and does not invade anyone’s privacy.

The reason for choosing this community for my slideshow is to show that change can happen with enough support behind it. For many years I knew many leaders who were a part of the wrestling community and loved the idea of sanctioning women’s wrestling. I also knew people who would never let that fly and were convinced this sport is only for men and women are not built for such a tough and masculine sport. The issue I found most appalling was that women didn’t have a state championship. Pictured in slide 5 is all of the wrestlers warming up. As you can see it is a huge event and means a lot to people who put everything into this sport.

Now women had to wrestle the boys during state and it was almost impossible to ever see any women placers. That is why in slide 6, I included my solution for the problem. Which is sanctioning womens wrestling. That means girls will have a separate state championship and actually get to feel the joy and excitement of accomplishing such a big thing. This also brought a lot of scholarships to many women wrestlers which offered free education for females who couldn’t afford it. Which is so special to me. In this last slide you can see a few of my friends who got full rides to continue their education whilst still doing a sport they love.

If it hadn’t been for some of the leaders in the community who came together to make a lot of girls’ dreams come true, a lot of my community would not have been able to attend school and better their lives.

My slideshow is set up as if I am narrating you through it. I wanted a personal effect to bring it to life, as if you could feel my emotions about my topic.

I am grateful I got to grow up enjoying this sport. It has taught me a lot over the years. I wish I could have seen more girls in the sport when I was younger. I am thankful that leaders of this community put in a multitude of support to push the issue. Now seeing several hundreds of girls go out there and enjoy this sport means a lot to me and everyone in my community. I’m thrilled to see the numbers drastically increase as well as the smiles.