Personal Narrative: My Life As A Cheerleader

Zig Ziglar once said, “When you catch a glimpse of your potential, that's when your passion is born.” When you find something that you're good at and that you love, you’re driven to do it for the rest of your life. For me, it's cheerleading. I’ve learned so many things, not only about myself, but about other people and what I want in life from cheerleading. It’s safe to say being a cheerleader has impacted every single area in my life, for the better. If you would've told my ten year- old self that today I would be a cheerleader and love every single minute of it, she would’ve laughed and then probably thrown herself off of a cliff. When I was younger I played basketball, volleyball, and goofed around with ballet. I didn’t really love these sports and only joined teams because my mom wanted to get me involved. However, it was obvious by

After cheering for 4 years, I can tell you that being on a team is way more than just “doing stuff together”. It’s encouraging each other, having one another's backs, and being more than just friends; but being a family too. And just like family members fight, I’ve had my fair share of arguments with my teammates. I realized not everyone thinks or learns new things the same. This was a hard concept for me to grasp because I had my ideas, I knew what worked, and I couldn't figure out why everyone else made things so difficult. Now since I was no longer shy, I jumped right into making my opinions obvious and heard when I could. Other people had different opinions and didn't always like mine; they also weren’t very nice about it. I wondered all the time why people weren’t as dedicated as I was about cheerleading, and I still struggle with that today. However, cheerleading is my passion and I’m not going to let other people's opinions change that. Being on a cheer team has made me stronger as a leader, and more patient as a