This was my first, and last (unless OO5 wants me or something), time attending Worlds as an athlete and Worlds was all it was talked up to be and more. The sportsmanship shown between teams reminded me of the bigger picture of why we all cheer. I got to bond with my team on a new level and meet lots of great people I will never forget. I also got the chance to finally meet my international pen pal of four years and watch her perform! Even though my team had unexpected mistakes in our routine and unfortunately didn't make it anywhere near finals, we moved past that and got to experience watching Worlds and do things we wouldn't have been able to do because we would've been competing.
You might have read my thread I posted a month or so back about my sudden mental block on fulls. To let you all know, I worked very hard, going in extra any time I could, and pushed through it. I had to basically start learning tumbling from the beginning, but at a rushed pace because I needed the skills in crunch time. But somehow, I did it. I never got the chance to work up to my whip through to full (what I got hurt doing), but I had a FWO through to full and other tumbling in my Worlds routine and I couldn't wait to perform.
This is where things went unexpected and this is my Worlds story. We had practice the day before prelims at OA. (Shoutout to Cheer World All Stars who we were sharing the floor with and cheered us on the whole time.) We were doing a tumble through, or maybe a stunt through, and in the dance my foot gave out and kind of snapped is the only way I can think to put it. Yup, in the dance. I couldn't walk on it and wasn't able to finish out practice so just had to have faith that all the previous practices would pay off and I would hit my routine. The next day, the trainer wrapped my foot really tight, I tried a cartwheel, just nope. Long story short, I worked hard for weeks under pressure to get all of this Worlds tumbling and didn't even get to do it! I did hit my routine, though. At first I was upset because I've always wanted to do the best tumbling I could do at Worlds and didn't even go upside down on the mat, but then I realized I do a forward roll in the dance lol.
We didn't hit our routine, I didn't get to tumble, we had over 10 points in deductions, we didn't make it to finals, heck, we didn't even make it to semifinals! But it's whatever. Stuff happens, people have bad performances, and sometimes that happens to be at the biggest competition of the year! But in the end, it's just cheerleading and it's the experiences, not the placements, that you will remember and I had a great one. :)
