It has been a week since my cheerleading season has officially ended. No more practices, games, or competitions. A 14 year long run has come to an end, and it is all starting to settle in and hit me for the first time. Cheerleading has been the most consistent part of my life since I was eight years old, and living without it seemed like the biggest adjustment I would ever have to make, or so I thought.

My actions had to change. I could no longer grab my sneakers, run out the door and head to the gym for practice. I could no longer sit on the sidelines and root on my teams. I could no longer step onto the competition floor in front of a panel of judges and pour my heart and soul into a routine that I have worked to perfect for months on end. Those things had to change. I was forced to Continue reading “Living without your love” →

The most frustrating thing about cheerleading for me has always been the interdependence amongst teammates. There are no substitutes. There are no second strings. There’s no one sitting on the bench waiting for the coach to call them in. If one girl gets injured, every routine and performance and stunt sequence and tumbling pass has to be completely rearranged. So when we lost two teammates last week due to unfortunate circumstances, we were forced to adapt and rework what we had been aiming to perfect since our season started in September.

Girls who have busted their ass for months trying to nail a difficult stunt sequence or a challenging tumbling pass now don’t even have the opportunity to showcase it at our competition this weekend because the other key components are now missing. The actions of others left our team with a mess to clean up. Is that fair? No. Absolutely not. But as the old cliché’ goes, Continue reading “The consequences of your actions” →