cheerleaders.
today's rant is about the underappreaciated spot (yes, it IS a sport).
lets go back three years in time.
when i was a senior in high school, i was seventeen. and so my school had a fully functional cheer squad when i was a freshman. they were good and prestigious and shit like that. and you needed to do a two minute dance routine in front of everyone if you wanted to join. i was too chicken to do it.
when i was a sophomore, we had no coach, so there was no squad.
when i was a junior, my sister joined. and the squad failed. the coach could only show up from five in the afternoon to seven at night. and it never worked out. one by one the girls dropped out until there were only three.
then they just gave up.
when i became a senior, we actually got together and tried hard to get a cheerleading squad. so we got a coach, he was a guy and he was pretty cool. i honestly had no past experience with cheerleading and i learned how to do hand stands and a bit of tumbling.
so we had the guy coach for one semester. then he got into this huge argument with the principal and got fired. so for the rest of the semester we had no coach, and we were super bummed out cause we had just organized a successful squad when it was taken from us. so we begged and groveled and the principal got us a new coach for the spring semester.
this coach would make us practice so hard. we even had five hour saturday practices. lucky for me, i wasn't forced to attend. but that was only because i had saturday (mandatory) SAT prep classes for five hours with the other seniors.
the rant part of this post has to do with everyone else at school.
they never appreciated us or believed in us. the only reason why the popular kids (half-heartedly) supported us was because twelve out of the fifteen girls were seniors, and we were part of the popular crowd.
but i remember we had a pep rally that year, WHERE WE PERFORMED, and the student council president went up to the stage RIGHT AFTER OUR PERFORMANCE, and she said the following: "can the following sports teams stand up for special recognition? basketbal boys and girls, soccer boys and girls, cross country, volleyball boys and girls. can everyone give them a round of applause?"
the other girls and i literally felt so left out.
why do the other sports get all the glory?
just because we're cheerleaders doesn't mean we don't struggle.
if anything, we do more extreme shit than you'll do in your entire life any day.
i was a back spot in my varsity cheer team and i have to catch my flyer at all costs. so let me tell you a story. i was there, doing a stunt with my stunt group. so we threw andrea up in the air. and on her way down she shifted back a little.
and i stuck my hands out to grab her. she literally fell on me. like her ass hit my face.
and we like both fell to the ground in a heap of groans and complaints. but i caught her. and even though that was one of the most painful things i have ever experienced, i was proud of myself for not letting her fall.
it wasn't until we won the tournament that everyone claimed they always supported us. some people are such hipocrites.
anyway, appreciate the cheerleaders more.
and if you're a cheerleader, i support you and i think you're awesome!
-clary xx
