Claressa Shields visits ABC12 News - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(08/15/12) - With her Olympic Gold Medal still proudly draped around her neck, Claressa Shields sat down for a one-on-one interview Wednesday.

Though her Olympic dream has come true, the reality of it still hasn't set in.

"I'm still kind of stuck on Aug.6, the first day I fought, because I was making sure I made myself not think past that date and I took it a minute at a time after that and now that it's past, I don't know what to do," Shields said.

It's hard to believe the 17 year old will be sitting in a classroom in a couple weeks, starting her senior year at Flint Northwestern.

She says she's really looking forward to a return to "normal life".

"I'm kinda happy to go back to school, I just want to sit there in class, where ain't nobody taking pictures of me and do my work. I'm just gonna be me," she said.

Shields said she feels like she has inspired the Flint community.

"Yeah, I feel like that. I feel like I've inspired U.S.A. period. And a lot of women who do boxing around the world, like on Twitter, Tweet me and wrote me that they just started boxing, had their first boxing lesson and it kind of shocked me," Shields said.

Speaking of twitter, Shields' win triggered an outpouring of congratulations from world class athletes and movie stars.

"I was laughing because Sugar Ray Leonard, he tweeted something like 'use your jab more' and 'you got a hook like mine' and I was like 'wow,' 'cause he's a great boxer. So for him to see me box, it just proved to me that I'm a good boxer, like he enjoys watching me. I got Tweeted by Samuel L. Jackson. It was just crazy on Twitter."

But even with her newfound fame and gold medal, Shields Tweeted "something is still missing." When ABC12 asked her about that, her response reminds us all that she is still a 17-year-old high schooler with much more ahead of her.

"Maybe a boyfriend or something," Shields said. "I don't know how long it's been since I've dated, It's been a long time."