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” →

This afternoon was my last time cheering at a home game for the rest of my life. After cheerleading for almost 15 years, this was a very big turning point in my life. I have always had the next season to look forward to, the next game to prepare for, the next weekend full of double-headers to consume all of my time, and now that has come to an end.

To be honest, in the moment of it all I was surprisingly calm and collected, I felt relieved in a way that I could finally decide how to spend my own time without having to work everything around these games. But per usual, I only realize the impact of things when I compare them to other issues that are going on in my life. And this time around, it made me realize how bittersweet it is to end a chapter in your life or to take a step, a leap, rather, in a whole new direction. It made me realize that Continue reading “Bittersweet decisions” →