I'd do it over and over and over again. This is my final year of allstar cheer before I head off to college and every day that ticks by is a "last." Last tryouts, last choreography camp, last 1st competition...soon I'll be in my ending dance pose at Worlds and it'll be all over.
Unfortunately there is a time when the fun will have to end and I will have to find another passion. Cheerleading isn't portable like most sports. Long after high school and college, one can gather up an informal team and start a game of basketball, softball or soccer. The case with us, is that never again will we have the chance to remember what the lights, the crowd and the blasting music felt like, or remember the way hitting a perfect routine feels. That overall experience of being a cheerleader is gone, unless that time and money is recommitted, something I know is hard to do in an adult life.
I did not turn out to be a prodigy or a superstar. In fact, I barely have the tumbling to be at the level team I am on. I work hard at getting better, and it takes a really long time to see any sort of progress, but I don't get discouraged. My coach taught me that you don't have to be the best, you just have to be YOUR best. Even the most talented athlete can't get what they're working for if their heart, passion and dedication is not in it either.
That's one of the many lessons that cheerleading has taught me that doesn't only apply to athletics, but everything I do. I am now fearless in front of crowds, comfortable and confident with my body, capable of working with all sorts of personality types and have made lifelong friends, to name a few more.
I am blessed to live in a country where I have had this opportunity, and to have such supportive parents wiggling through the exhausting gym drama, and giving up thousands of dollars and dozens of perfectly good weekends to watch me perform my passion for two minutes and thirty seconds.
After this year, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. College cheer is my first choice, and I'm pretty sure that I will make the team. It will be hard to say goodbye to the big bows, sparkly uniforms and spring floor, but who knows, maybe I'll love it.
I plan on putting at least one of my kids in it. If they don't like it, it'll hurt a little, but their passion could lie somewhere else and I'll be willing to help them find it. It's my subtle dream to be a coach. I don't care who--mini 1 or senior 5. I just want to help more boys and girls learn the same lessons I have and discover a passion unlike anything else the rest of the world has to offer. If it doesn't happen, then it's ok. I have to grow up eventually, I'm just not sure if I'm ready to quite yet.