Why Is Cheerleading Important To Me

Five, six, seven, eight…. Music is blaring. Everyone is counting. Each move must be sharp. Each face must be smiling. Every stunt must hit. This is cheerleading. It’s not the same cheerleading you see on the sidelines of a sports game. This is competitive cheer. For 11 years of my life, I have done cheerleading. After football season is over, cheerleaders have the option to stay for competition season when we compete against other cheerleaders from different parts of the county, state, and later, from different parts of the country. When I was younger and did recreational cheer, I did competition season a few times. Later in life during my freshman year of high school, I tried competitive season again. I remember the long, tiring practices filled with perfecting every single move, stunt, and jump. It was incredibly stressful, yet I still loved every second of it. Cheerleading really helped develop who I am today.
It helped me develop leadership skills and unbreakable bonds with many friends. Going to cheer after a hard day at school really brightens my day. It’s the small things like hitting a perfect liberty in a stunt (when the flyer goes up on only one foot and tucks her other foot by her knee on the opposite side) or achieving a full-up to a liberty (when the flyer rotates 360° before hitting her liberty) that makes me happy. Cheer is helpful in teaching how important teamwork can be. In a stunt, everyone must work together or else the stunt will not go up. Though many disagreements might be presented over how a stunt fell, or how a certain move in the dance goes, compromises are made to ensure everything goes