Personal Essay: My Cheer Career

“5, 6, 7, 8, who do we appreciate? GOOOOO TEAM!!!” That’s a phrase I’ve said quite a few times in my life. As a cheerleader, I tend to say whatever I can to get the crowd pumped, even if we’re down by 30 points in the 4th quarter. Since six years old, I was the most energetic person out on the sidelines, cheering on my home team. I thought that my “cheer career” would last forever. So imagine my surprise when it abruptly came to an end. In the 10th grade, my mother made me quit the cheerleading team, due to a C on my report card, but this turn of events became the best thing that could ever happen to me. I used to think that cheerleading was the only sport/activity for me. I devoted all of my time, energy, and money to it. I practiced every day and spent hundreds of dollars every year on shoes, uniforms, and hotels at the competitions. Ever since that all ended, I’ve been saving money and gaining so much free time. I even opened myself up to new activities. In March of 2016, I found out that my school had a lacrosse team, so I tried out. I had never even heard of “lacrosse”! In the end, I made the team, I made new friends, and I made new opportunities for myself in life. One very interesting thing I found out about myself was that I loved to sing. Singing, to me, feels like finding your favorite shirt
after losing it, or a cool breeze on a warm day. I love it so much, I actually auditioned for the school musical. I was literally tied with one other person for the lead, but I, unfortunately, did not get the part. Instead, they cast me as a cheerleader, which is pretty ironic, isn’t it? It was an awakening experience, and I made friends while having fun. With all the free time I had gained, I actually had time to focus more on the important things, like schoolwork. I got my priorities straight, and dramatically changed my grades for the better. I was struggling with work for the first two years of high school. It was all so new to me, and with cheerleading taking up all my time outside of school, I never truly dedicated myself to my grades. Post-cheer, I can finally be proud of the grades I’m getting. When cheer was first officially over for me, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I literally felt so lost and confused, it was crazy. All I had ever done with my life was flip around and scream at the top of my lungs, maybe do a few arm motions between, and now I couldn’t do that anymore. Adapting to this new life was hard. All I could do was wonder “what’s next?” Cheerleading.
It feels like forever ago that I was following my dreams of being an NFL cheerleader. Two years ago, after cheering for eight years, my life ended, or so I thought. I had my heart crushed when my mother told me I was not able to cheer anymore, due to a slight inconvenience. Even though that portion of my life was over, a new part was just getting started. I was in a musical, on a lacrosse team, and every other aspect of my life began to turn around for the better. I feel like this was just like an arrow getting pulled back, in order to be launched forward, because even though I had to go through this minor setback, it set me up for some major
success.