Personal Narrative: All-Star Cheerleading

As an athlete, you only want success for your team. For me, all-star cheerleading was a mixture of success and anything but success. Everyone had countless of injuries, blood was shed, tears happened every practice. Everything is on the line with this type of sport. Just one mistake and the months of practice can feel worthless. It feels like a waste of time but it only strives you to work harder. In the end, the work is worth it. Generally, tryouts are at the beginning of May and from then until September you and your team have all of that time to practice your routine before your first competition . Even though routines are 2:30, it takes what seems like years to put together the perfect one. If your team has a national championship title
It’s a feeling that is so indescribable even I can’t put into words how you feel. The day of the competition had finally arrived and even though my team was prepared, we felt anything but that. All we wanted to do was our best and hit a clean routine and make our coaches proud. Of course we wanted to defeat our rival, but that isn’t something you can have a mind set about. Right before we went on, we always have a group huddle filled with encouraging words and prayer. Once we hit the stage it was muscle memory. The enormous stage lights and screaming crowd was motivation for us. It’s like we were home. To say we did great was an understatement, we not only executed everything perfectly, we performed the cleanest routine we have done the entire year. Our hearts were so full of joy after hitting our last motion. The minute the music ended we all jumped for joy on the competition floor knowing we had done everything to our best potential. Awards arrived and of course, us and our rival team held the top two spots. The agony from waiting was nerve-wracking. The announcer finally got to announcing the second place team - our rival. We had done it. My team had yet another national championship title under our belts. They announced us as the national champions and we would be taking home jackets and a full-paid bid to Amazing, a competition for only the top in the state. My teammates and I were ecstatic about the victory, but also so blessed to have won it with our family.
There is a quote that describes any sport perfectly. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” No matter where you come from or what you do, if you set your mind to it then it can be done. Surround yourself with people and friends who motivate you, and in the end, the work will always be worth