Tunde Oyeneyin: How this Peloton instructor found strength after losing her parents, brother in 6 years
Tunde Oyeneyin knows firsthand what it means to dig deep in order to find the motivation to go on. The Peloton cycling instructor opened up about losing her brother, mother, and father within a six years time frame.
“I lost my brother when he was 19 years old,” Oyeneyin said. “Three years after that, (I) lost my dad and then three years after that I lost my mother, so I lost half of my immediate family within six years.”
Oyeneyin revealed her personal mantra for finding the strength to continue amidst grief and adversity.
“I always say we don’t get to choose what happens, but we do get to choose how we react,” she said. “Today’s a new day. I choose to be new to it. I live because they cannot.”
Her parents emigrated from Nigeria to the United States. She grew up in a Nigerian household, but when she went to school, she was American. She went to school with predominantly white kids, and it wasn’t until college that she immersed herself in American Black culture. So, she lived between these worlds and so much of that shaped who she is.
She was plus-size growing up. Not only was she one of the only Black kids in school, but she was also the darkest person, and chubby, so she stood out. “As a kid, the last thing you want to do is stand out. I had low self-esteem and low confidence. I felt like I was a very extroverted person living in an introverted person’s body. I was outgoing but I never was too outgoing because then people would see me. And if they saw me, they’d see how big I was.”
It was during those years that she fell in love with makeup and, for her, it was about control. She didn’t think she could control what her body looked like, but she could control the way she did her face.
She was a successful makeup artist for several years. She had worked her butt off and landed her dream job, but she hated it. She went to New York on a business trip and the hotel gym was busted, so she decided to try out a cycling studio.
“Three minutes into class, I’m in a state of euphoria. I’m in this other world. I leave the class, I’m walking back to the hotel, and my walk turns into a skip. Then I’m laughing and crying. I have this vision; this wave of energy moves through my body from my fingers to my toes. I see it all so clearly. I knew that I was going to be cycling for the rest of my life. I knew that I’d be teaching it. And I knew that I would touch the world doing it.”
Oyeneyin revealed part of that moment was knowing she would be teaching on one of the largest cycling platforms, without even knowing what Peloton was at the time.
“I could have dismissed that as a just daydream, hallucination, whatever you want to call it, but I took it as this opportunity,” she said. “I think that the beauty of uncertainty is infinite possibility.”
She shared advice for people who have set goals but want immediate gratification. “Progress not perfection,” Oyeneyin said. “Give yourself attainable goals.”
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/b1yB6xsYJds
- https://www.self.com/story/tunde-oyeneyin-interview-speak
- https://www.today.com/parents/parents/pelotons-tunde-oyeneyin-found-strength-losing-parents-brother-rcna26911
- https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/style/story/cycling-instructor-tunde-oyeneyin-opens-pushing-past-fear-76564593
- https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/polly/home/SynthesizeSpeech
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