For about 12 years all together, my entire life was dedicated to competitive cheerleading. Growing up, I was spending all of my free time stunting, tumbling and learning how to impress the judges. Not only is cheerleading full of competitions, crazy "tricks" and funny facials, but also many awesome life lessons that I would not have learned otherwise.
1. Commitment.
Possibly the most important lesson by far is commitment. In order to achieve your goals, it takes a whole lot of dedication and hard work. With cheerleading, there were very little off days since it is a year-round sport, so I do not think I could even begin to count how many times the words “I can’t, I have practice” has came out of my mouth. Constantly having to give up things that a normal kid does, for cheerleading did kind of stink sometimes but if I had to do it all over, I wouldn’t have done it any differently. It may have seem bad for a moment, but when you want something so badly, giving up other things doesn't really matter.
2. Friendship.
Cheerleading taught me what friendship is all about. Luckily it gave me some of my best friends. Spending endless hours together, pushing each other past our limits, caused me to gain some of the most amazing people that I have in my life. The crazy thing about these friends in particular is that we don't have to talk everyday or even see each other often to keep the friendship going because every time we see each other its like a family reunion. It's pretty cool having a friendship like this, knowing that they're always there, and always being able to pick up where we last left off.
3. Trust.
Whether I was trusting a teammate, a coach or even myself, cheerleading is depends on trust. With stunting for example, this becomes a huge necessity. If one person doesn’t give it their all, the stunt absolutely will not work and this can cause a lot of problems or even injuries. Doubting anyone can cause the entire stunt to come down so you had to put all of your trust into your teammates. Trusting myself was also needed because being able to sprint and then throw myself into a tumbling pass can seem very scary. Prior to a pass, if you have any doubt, you simply will not go. Which goes on to me learning to trust my coaches, if I doubted myself in any way, my coaches would always step in and remind me of what I am capable of. Learning to trust my coaches helped me lose a lot of my self doubt and taught me that I am capable of more than I think. Which in my eyes, is a huge achievement all in its own.
4. Facing my fears.
Stepping out onto a mat with thousands of eyes on you can be one of the most exhilarating feelings ever, but it can also be one of the most terrifying moments of your life. You feel as if even though you had done this a million times and could literally do this routine in your sleep, that you will somehow still forget the entire thing. I learned that being afraid is literally the only thing that holds you back from being the best you can be. Whether it be wiping out in a pass or getting hit while stunting, the behind the scenes of a cheerleading routine is not so pretty and very scary. After falling down or having a bloody nose, you had to learn how to pick yourself up and push through whatever fears you had so you could push on.
5. Failure.
Of course you are not going to win every competition, stick every stunt or nail every pass, but what matters is that you tried. One of my most favorite all-star coaches taught me that failure means way more than never trying. I always feared falling down and not sticking it but she always pushed me to look at it as a lesson. That if you fall down, at least you tried rather than never knowing. You can always learn from the fall and figure out how to stick it the next try, but you never learn anything from never trying. Life is all about never giving up and taking the risks. This is something that thankfully, I will never forget.
