Cheerleading has changed my life. That is a sentence I never thought I would be typing, but here we are. Life is all about growth, changing, and finding out who you are supposed to be and how you want to show others who you are. For me, this has all be answered, directly or indirectly, through cheer. No I’m not saying I want to be a cheerleader for the rest of my life, and no I’m not here to tell you I am the greatest thing to ever happen to cheerleading. Instead, I wanted to express how cheer has changed the way I see life, how I interact with others, and how I carry myself. I joined the Indiana University Cheer Program in early 2020, only two years ago. I didn’t anticipate my first experiences of a brand new sport take place during a pandemic, but that’s life I suppose.
Cheerleading has changed my life. That is a sentence I never thought I would be typing, but here we are. Life is all about growth, changing, and finding out who you are supposed to be and how you want to show others who you are. For me, this has all be answered, directly or indirectly, through cheer. No I’m not saying I want to be a cheerleader for the rest of my life, and no I’m not here to tell you I am the greatest thing to ever happen to cheerleading. Instead, I wanted to express how cheer has changed the way I see life, how I interact with others, and how I carry myself. I joined the Indiana University Cheer Program in early 2020, only two years ago. I didn’t anticipate my first experiences of a brand new sport take place during a pandemic, but that’s life I suppose.
Through 2020 and the first half of 2021, cheer was a game of failure – dropping stunts, messing up routines, executing moves and skills incorrectly which could and would result in injury at times. These failures sparked a motivation in me that I had not experienced before, even throughout my years as a baseball and basketball player. This motivation was much more pure. Instead of pushing myself to beat ‘x’ or ‘y,’ this was all about making myself a better person, a more confident person, and a person I would be proud of being. A competition between oneself is a journey everyone should experience, and I will forever be grateful for cheerleading, and my teammates for showing me that. The family I joined overwhelmed me with positivity and I am confident these people will be in my life forever. My time in cheer will soon end, but the lessons about hard work, patience and resilience will be lessons I hold onto and carry with me into the workplace, my marriage and family, and every other aspect of my life.