Have you ever loved a thing so much, not necessarily a person or an animal but perhaps a sport? My friend described her love of softball as something she loves more than anything. She would eat and sleep softball for 12+ years of her life, but then one day it was gone and there is a great chance she may never get it back. I know it’s not easy going from doing something you love every day to sitting on the sidelines, especially if you weren’t the one who decided that it had to end. For me, the sport I loved was cheerleading.

Growing up cheerleading was the one thing I always looked forward to doing. Going to cheer practice was always the best part of my day. I couldn’t wait for football season to come around because that meant one thing, Cheerleading! It was more than a sport to me, it was like a religion. I practiced my cheers and my motions every day in the mirror like my coaches would tell me. I wanted to be better, I wanted to be the best and everyone always told me practice makes perfect.

When I was younger, I was a flyer and all though it wasn’t my favorite spot on the team, it was a spot and I was glad to have it. I started off on the team my mother coached for, it was the team in my town. I probably cheered there for two years tops, then we moved to a team on the other side of the city. When I started the new team I was a little bit older and started cheering for the football players. I loved cheering for the boys at the game, but even more I loved to compete.

I had never competed before. Never learned a routine. Never stepped on a mat. Never cheered in front of crowds of people, but there was something about those 2 minutes and 30 seconds that made me feel like a star. The energy just flowed through me when I would step on the mat. The facials, the arm motions, the stunts and the cheer it all just made me so happy. This was the first time I had ever competed and my team had won first in sectionals, then first in states, once we got to regionals we worked are butts off but as hard as we worked we got third place. Good, but not enough to send us to nationals.

The next year I came back to my team and we were ready to take back what was ours. We worked hard but we had fun. We stomped the competitions in sectionals and made it first in states. I remember sitting in the stands with my team mates and coaches. We were 1 of 3 teams that had competed so we knew we’d place either first, second, or third. They called out third place and it wasn’t us, we got over the hump we weren’t able to last year, now we all cross our arms and hold hands tight waiting for the second place team to be called, and it wasn’t our name. We all jumped up in tears cheering because we knew we won first place. I remember this moment to be one of my proudest. I was so happy, we were headed to Nationals! Although we didn’t place in nationals we got 4^th and now that I think about it that was really good for a group of girls at that age.

I took the next two years off from cheerleading and went back into gymnastics. I loved it, but it wasn’t the same. I came back to cheerleading and instead of a flyer, I was now a tumbler and a base. My experience with tumbling was one and a million. I loved how free I felt in a good tumbling pass. I loved how I looked when I tumbled, like my body was made to flip.

It was a good last two years. I ended cheer my sophomore year of

high school, because I aged out. I tried to keep myself distracted but it was so hard, especially when I’d see other girls still doing what I loved. I tried to start a team in my high school, but it never really worked out. It was like my friend always said, being forced to leave the sport you love is like having your first true love ripped away from you.