For my first blog back after the closing of the semester and the start of this new one, I was browsing for topics or events that I had encountered in my cheerleading career. This became extremely difficult as I started to think, mostly because this whole month of December was one big break for me and cheerleading. With little to no events occurring, it was nice to take a breath from cheerleading, unfortunately, however, it left me with nothing to talk about for my blog! While brainstorming, I suddenly thought of the idea to talk about why I started cheerleading in the first place and how it led me to where I am today, a topic that I have not really touched on throughout all of my blogs so far.

Going way, way back in time, I figured I should briefly touch on my background before I became even remotely interested in cheerleading at all, so essentially all the way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody was the most amazing TV show in the world. Before even considering entering into the cheerleading world, I was a gymnast. I loved the sport and it became to overtake my life. Starting at nearly 1 year old, by the time I had reached age 10 I had started to compete- and win- multiple titles for my district and state. As I started getting better, practices started getting harder, longer, and much more physically demanding. While 13-year-old me was so in love with this sport, I finally got around to realizing that this was too much for me and this I had other goals in my life then just school and gymnastics.

Deciding to give up gymnastics was a very difficult decision for me, especially because it had been such a large part of my life for so many years. I felt like I was losing part of myself and part of my purpose. Once I had given up, I decided to try cheerleading because it took some of my favorite aspects from gymnastics (such as being on a team and of course the flipping), but it also incorporated some new aspects I was unfamiliar of, such as being lifted by other people and of course the actual cheering portion.

Throughout middle school and high school, I found myself fully immersed in what cheerleading had to offer- and little did I know at the time the major impact it was going to have on my life. As I grew older, I found myself craving new tricks and always wanting to learn more, something I feel like usually people get tired of the longer they do a sport for. High School cheerleading was my favorite thing about school. I loved my teammates, I loved my school’s spirit, and I loved the tricks and flips of the sport, but never had I considered moving on past my senior year.

Very few girls from my high school cheer program had ever actual gone on to cheer at the collegiate level, and coming from a non-cheer background, I never really expected that to be me. I knew I had loved the sport so much but I also knew in order to cheer in college I had to be able to stunt with a male- something I had never even experienced before and it would take a lot of effort to learn since it requires completely different techniques. After contemplating a few times in my head, I finally came to my senses and pushed the idea of collegiate cheer to the back of mind- until one very special day.

One of my friends from high school, who I had known since I was a young girl, started talking to me about college one evening when we were with a big group of friends. After getting deep into where we both wanted to go, he had asked me if I had considered cheerleading in college- a question nobody had asked me before. I quickly answered no and expressed how I felt I was not good enough, yet he simply did not seem to like that answer. He said that if I enjoyed something that much and was willing and excited to work and make myself better, why not just work at it and try out? His advice really resonated with me.

So, I started to work for my goals. I took numerous lessons in order to enhance the skills I had already had, as well as gain completely new ones. After months and months of preparation and practice, I tried out for the cheerleading team. Little did I know all I needed was one friend to tell me that I had a real shot, and in taking that shot, I unlocked a whole new door to my future I didn’t even know existed.