My Personal Experiences With Cheerleading

For me, Cheerleading has been one of the most important parts of my life. There were both ups and downs in my cheerleading career, but I would not have traded them for anything. The experiences I have gone through have taught me many lessons both inside and outside of the cheerleading world. I've contributed many long hours into cheerleading, each and every minute was worth it. Though at times I thought I was at my limit I somehow pushed through, with the help of my coaches and teammates.
Cheerleading was a major time consumer throughout my entire high school career. Between having practice every day for 2-3, games at night, private tumbling sessions, and competitions on weekends, I barely found the time or energy to do anything else. I still had to maintain my grades in order to stay on the cheerleading team, and I knew if I lost cheerleading it would be the biggest mistake I would have made. During both of my seasons exhaustion became a very familiar trait of mine. Yet, I still found myself looking forward to every practice, looking forward to a day of new challenges to get past. Being a part of a team holds an essence I hope that everyone is able to enjoy one day. Yes, there were days where I struggled, but the achievement that comes after the struggle gives you a feeling of accomplishment unlike any other. I wanted to be the best cheerleader I could be, so when I got lazy and wanted to relax, I thought of all the benefits I could be gaining for myself. Cheerleading was my one and only vice for a big part of my life. When I was angry I cheered, when I was sad I cheered, when I was happy I cheered, and when I needed time to focus and clear my mind, I cheered. It is the one thing in my life that I felt I had control over, and it was a value in my life that I was proud of. One of my proudest accomplishments would have to be during my freshman year when I was asked to join the varsity cheerleading team from the junior varsity team. In my school, freshman were not allowed to try out for varsity level sports. The decision of a freshman joining a varsity team was up to the coach and the athletic director. After accepting the invitation to join the Varsity team I felt as if my hard work had paid off and that someone had noticed. Hands down, that day was one of the happiest days of my life.
During my cheerleading career I attended numerous competitions, including the national cheerleading competition held at Disney World in Orlando, Florida annually. That trip to nationals is a memory I will never forget, being the first ever cheer team from my school to receive a bid to nationals, we felt as if we were the dream team. Though compared to all of the amazing high school teams in this nation we were not in the elite, we had accomplished our own personal goal, and we got there. This  occurred during my Freshman year of high school. Then during my sophomore year it was back to normal cheerleading, and regional competitions, but I didn't mind at all. As long as I was participating in the sport I would be happy.  Then during my junior year in high school I faced my biggest hurdle yet. Half way through competition season I was participating in a private tumbling class, to better my tumbling skills, and then things took a turn for the worst. I had torn all my crucial ligaments in my left ankle performing a standing back handspring, back tuck. While completing my back tuck I came down on my ankle wrong and my body weight collapsed on my ankle. The most excruciating pain shot up my leg and throughout my entire foot. For once I was hoping that I was being over dramatic, and the pain wasn't as horrible as it really was. Immediately after the fall, I was unable to put any wight on my ankle.  Next thing I knew when I looked at my ankle and foot it was triple the size and extremely bruised. At first I thought that I had broken it, and the road to recovery would be a long one. Instead I only torn crucial ligaments within my ankle and foot, and they eventually would heal. I was put on crutches for nearly a month, and my ankle was placed in an air cast. The pain stuck around for a while, and just when I thought my ankle was restoring it's strength I would test it out. By placing weight on my foot little by little I slowly started using my left ankle more and more. Along with many doctor appointments  I was finally able to walk limply without crutches, and then walk normally again. I was walking way before I had tried to cheer again, and when I had to go back to cheerleading I was a little scared. Would it hurt? Did I lose all of my skills? Would I ever make it back to how I used to be? Those questions were all frequently on my mind. Getting back into the swing of things was difficult, I remember the first  tumbling skill that I completed hurt pretty bad. I automatically thought it would never be the same, and unfortunately I was partially right. After my injury I never fully reacquired all my my tumbling skills, I did regain many, but I was no longer as good of a tumbler as I used to be. All my other skills had been restored to the full extent, if not further improved. At this point I still had my entire senior year ahead of me, probably the most important season. I proudly continued to cheerlead and be as good of a cheerleader as I could be. I didn't let my injury bring me down, or the fact that I had to wear a brace whenever I cheered now. The reason why I didn't give up is because I loved the sport of cheerleading. If I was apart of my cheerleading team, but was not as good as I used to be, it was still better then not being on the team at all. My personal experiences through cheerleading taught me many life lessons involving perseverance, discipline, and hard work.