To the little girl putting on her uniform for the first time,
"One day we won't be cheerleaders anymore. One day every medal, trophy, ring, or jacket we've ever received will be a distant memory from the past. No more hard practices, no more full outs. One day we will all stop on the mat for one last time. One day when we're older our bodies will be worn and torn from a sport we lived so strongly for. Maybe even one day we'll accompany our children and their children to a place that was long ago our escape from reality" - Robert Scianna (California All Stars Smoed)
Maybe that day has come for me, but maybe it hasn’t. I don’t know what my future will hold, but I do know that you have so many more years to enjoy this amazing experience. At 6 years old, you have at least 12 more years to cheer. When you’re mom helps you tie your little white cheer shoes, fasten the back of your uniform, put your hair up, and do your makeup, be grateful. Maybe she’s forcing you into your first season because she was a cheerleader or maybe you decided for yourself, like I did. Either way, cherish this time.
One day it will be your last practice, your last season, and your last competition. It will be your last NCA, or Cheer Sport, or World’s. One day you will wake up and go to school like a normal day, but that evening you will walk into your gym in your practice wear for the last time as an athlete. You will warm up with your team, stretch with them, run through all of your tumbling, jumps, and stunts with them. Your coaches will yell “Get set!” and you will take your place for that first hellish full out, but you won’t be upset about it – you’ll want to cry. The last full out of that night you’ll give it everything you have because you won’t have anymore hard practices. You’ll circle up and talk about practice and the upcoming competition, and then you’ll break “G3FCA2A” ringing through the gym one more time, and your coaches will tell everyone it’s your last practice.
One day you’ll wake up at 6:00 AM one last time to get ready. You’ll perfect your ponytail, your poof, and your bow. You’ll do your makeup better than you ever have before. You’ll put on your uniform and lace up your nfinitys one last time. Yes, your uniform may be itchy, or it may have lipstick on it from your flyer, but you will wear it with more pride than ever before, your gym written across your chest or down your arm for the last time.
One day you will meet up with your team, stretch, and get excited one last time. You’ll go to the warm up room and you’ll go through each of the mats. Then, you’ll circle up, pray, and you will get to call the break since it’s your last competition. You will be so nervous you feel like you’re going to throw up, one more time. Your team will let you lead everyone on to the mat. You’ll take your place on the blue mat, under the bright lights, in front of the screaming crowd of thousands, for the last time. You will put everything you have into that routine.
You’ll go home that night and refuse to take your uniform off, cause you know that when you do, you’ll never put it back on. After my last competition, I slept in mine because I couldn’t even think about letting go of something that was my entire life for 9 years. You untie your shoes and hang your uniform up, you’ll put your bow away, and you’ll smile at all the memories you made.
After all of these ‘lasts’ you won’t know what to do with yourself. You will have free time for the first time in your life; you won’t have 20 hours of practice a week.
My 10 seasons of cheerleading were the best times of my life. Every single hard practice, full out, and early morning was worth it, and I would give anything to get to relive it all. When you walk onto the World’s mat or the floor of the NCA arena, all of the hard work you’ve put in will be worth it. Nothing will matter anymore when your name is called after “and your national champion is…”
You will miss out on normal things that other kids get to do. You will miss birthday parties, school dances, and a lot of other things, but you will gain so much more than you have to sacrifice.
If you are like me, and never got that black jacket or the ring, it’s ok. You gained so much more than that. You learned more discipline that most people ever do, you will truly learn the concept of delayed gratification (those conditioning practices in August pay off in April), you’ll learn how to work with anyone, and you’ll be able to smile no matter what happens to you. Along with all of these life lessons, you will have your coaches that never gave up on you, and you will meet some of your best friends - they will stick with you forever.
