29 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Lesson 22

Lesson 22. Cheer Cheer Cheerfulness

I consider myself to be a very happy person. Maybe that’s the problem. Or maybe it’s that in a house with four other children I had to learn to be extremely loud in order to be heard at all, but one thing about me you should know, is that I have a very loud voice. 

Have you ever walked into a pool for a moment and just listened?

Have you heard how often on pool decks everything echoes, making everything louder, but at the same time making everything harder to hear?

Just in case you haven’t: That’s what pool decks are like. The high ceilings and blank walls offer a first rate home to echoes, making everything both louder and harder to hear. 

(Then you get water in your ear swimming and you might as well kiss whatever chance you had of hearing your swim coach talking goodbye)

But that’s not what this is about. 

This is about me…..

And my very loud voice. 

We had a swim meet at one of these said pool decks. 

(Wow! Can you imagine that? Having a swim meet at a pool? Who’d a thought?) *this is sarcasm in case you can’t tell* 

I love my teammates so as one of them dove in and started her event I started cheering.

“Go Alex! GO! GO!” I jumped up and down and waved my arms around as if my energy could somehow propel her forwards. 

“GO!” I cheered

She was slowing down so I got louder “GOO!”

And louder 

“GOOO!”

And louder

“GOOOO!!!”

And louder 

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The race finished and I looked next to me the girls from the other team were covering their ears, I hadn’t realized I’d been cheering so hard. 

My friend got out of the water and walked over to me. 

“You know,” she said “I can’t hear the whistle they blow while I’m swimming, but I can hear you yelling, that’s how loud you are.”

I flushed red, “I was cheering for you.”

She laughed, “I know, everyone knows.” She smiled “Thanks.”

I sat down on the bleachers my event was coming up soon. My friend helped me with my cap and then I walked behind the blocks. 

“Step up!” they called

“Take your mark!” I gripped the blocks and waited

“GO!”

I threw myself of the blocks and started going. When I finished I looked up to see what my time was. 

It wasn’t pretty.

I walked over to my coach. 

“What happened?” she asked

I pursed my lips, “I don’t know.”

I had still won the event but my time was way off. 

She shook her head, “I know what happened! You wasted all your energy right before you swam by yelling like a maniac down at the other end of the pool.” She shook her head

“Your cheering is causing you to swim slower.”

“Next time I wouldn’t yell so loud.” I promised

She nodded her head, but still eyed me warily.

Turns out, cheering isn’t always good, sometimes your cheerfulness can cause something bad. 

So, be careful, cause your cheer might not be cheerful to cheer anymore.