The Important Lesson I Learned from Cheerleading
I don’t know if you have assumptions about cheerleading, but I certainly did; well, before I was one. In college, I tried out for a hockey cheerleading team who recruited figure skaters but I had to work through some strong assumptions before I did so. (If you’re curious about that experience, you can read more about it here.) I was drawn in because I wanted to skate in college but the idea of becoming a “cheerleader” made me hesitate. Before I joined, I thought cheerleading was…well, silly. Because of my own assumptions, I worried others might think I was superficial, mean or arrogant before they even got to know me. In the end though, my love for skating outweighed my fear of opinions and I decided that if I made the team, I would just deal with the “cheerleading” part of the it. I assumed the skating, not the off-ice cheering, would be the only challenge that being on the team would bring (cue: face palm and obvious twist to the story).
Tryouts were hard but it wasn’t until I attended a cheer camp in the summer that I began to eat my words…fast. Like, 15 minutes into the cheer camp fast. We had barely even started when I began shaking from both fear of my coaches and exhaustion from constantly holding my arms above my head. Within 30 minutes, I wondered if I would ever be able to do everything the coaches were asking of us. By the end of the camp, I never said one negative thing about cheer again.
During my 2 years on the team, I grew to respective cheerleading more than I ever thought possible. The hours we spent working to mirror each other in exact synchronization would give anyone a headache. No matter the amount of crowds we cheered in front of, the fear I swallowed before lifting a full grown adult or doing a back flip over a teammate never went away. The straight up nerve every girl on my team had gave me an immediate respect for them and what we did everyday. It was terrifying, exhilarating and so very rewarding.
I don’t know what your views on cheerleading are, but I can guarantee that if you’ve ever done it, you know what I’m talking about. This experience taught me an important lesson: I judge way too many things before having a clue of what it actually is. Watching something and doing something is completely different, and it took my incorrect assumptions about cheerleading to realize that. I’ve started to realize how much I don’t actually know and it’s positively affected every area of my life. I know there’s something to learn from every person I meet and every city I see; and it’s made my world a much more fascinating and exciting place. I encourage you to challenge any assumptions you’re holding onto. Try something new and see what happens! You never know what could be right around the corner if you just take one tiny leap into the unknown.
Heather Brockell is a Web Designer and Copywriter based out of North Dakota, USA. When she isn’t designing websites or writing, she performs as a professional figure skater and singer in ice shows all around the country.
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