For almost ten years, cheerleading was the biggest part of my life. I was known around town as “the cheerleader”, because there was nothing else that could describe me any better. I lived a life of wearing only cheer clothes, spending my weekends at competitions, and defending cheerleading as a sport to anyone who would listen...and those who got stuck in a conversation with me. There were years when I would spend 12 hours a week in the gym, on top of the private lessons I had scheduled and the times I would go in early just to have the mat to myself.

Allstar cheerleading is expensive, but for every dollar my family put into it, I got something ten times better. Because of the long hours put into cheerleading, I learned some serious time-management skills in order to stay an honor roll student so I could be eligible to continue cheering. I also gained determination, because while all those “backflips” and times when I was holding girls in the air are cool, they are extremely difficult, and require more practice and time than you would think in order to perfect them. I’m not kidding when I say it took me four years to master a skill that I now can do without thinking about.

Now while all the flips and tricks are cool to show off, I gained something so much more important through cheerleading. Cheerleading gave me another family, and I made some of my very best friends through the sport as well. They're not just in the sense that once the season over we drifted apart. To this day, there are still coaches and teammates I stay in touch with from my very first year. No one else in your life completely understands what you’re going through like your brothers and sisters on the mat. When I needed to memorize a three stanza poem to perform the next day, my team spent the entire practice reciting it during the routine so I’d get it down pat. (I went on to nail the performance and get a 100, so thanks, guys) With spending so many early mornings or all-day practices with them doing death-defying stunts, you create a bond so strong that neither time nor distance apart can break it. You know a bond is strong when day after day you find a new bruise from purposely throwing yourself to the ground to break your flyer’s fall or from catching a foot, hand, knee, or elbow to literally any part of your body.

Choosing to leave cheerleading behind in order to pursue other interests was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. All I had ever known was competitions every winter weekend, glitter eyeshadow and teased hair, loud music, and big bows and nike pros. Knowing that I was leaving behind a piece of my family was tough, but I knew it was what was good for me and my team. I still loved the sport, but my heart just was not it like it was seasons past. I have now moved on to new passions and I have learned that while you can take the girl out of cheerleading, you just cannot take the cheerleading out of the girl. I see it in the way I am still able to impress people with a front walkover, round-off backhandspring back tuck (I can bet people are impressed just reading that), in the way I can easily learn dances to perform them at pep rallies, and in the way I love to show spirit and cheer for the sports teams at school.

So thank you, cheerleading, for being such a huge part of my life. You were there for me when I needed to tumble off built up steam. You taught strength, in more ways than one. You gave talents to show-off, and God knows I do whenever I can. You gave me a family, one who I could vent to and cry to, talk with and laugh with. I may have moved on, but I will never forget you.