Cheerleading Journey

At five or six years old I was not competitively cheering, instead I was staring up adorningly at my cousin- who is 13 years my senior – while she cheered on her high school football team. It was because of her that I started my own long journey in cheerleading. Her high school hosted a “Kid’s camp” for the cheer squad to teach a group of elementary school children some cheers to perform at a half-time show. Knowing that I looked up to this cousin, my mother signs me up with my best friend tagging along so we weren’t lonely. It was during this game that I found I loved being out on the field looking up at the crowd. I ended up doing the kid’s camp again the next year. Even though I did these I knew absolutely cheerleading and that did change

The second I entered middle school I tried out for the small cheer squad and –thankfully- made it. I then went on to cheer for that same squad another year, where I was made captain, and my ambition went up thousands of notches when I began high school. Now classic stereotypes are of high school cheerleaders so when I tried out I had all of these assumptions in my head. Cheering in high school was the best experience of my life. I was captain 3 out of 4 years, varsity 3 of those years, I had the opportunity to meet some influential people that I still am in contact with to this day. There was so much that I learned and I created relationships with people that have helped shape my life.

As I went through middle school and high school I was honored to meet people that helped steer me towards another branch of cheer- competitive. I was a competitive cheerleader for 4 years and there was nothing to compare to it. Whilst cheering for school I competed with a local team so I always had my time taken up with nothing but cheerleading. Personally, high school was the most fun and challenging, but with comp. cheer I was pushed in an entirely different