People say that cheerleading is not a sport but I beg to differ. Competitive cheer is one of the top most dangerous sports in the world. You have girls flying through the air hoping that their bases are there to catch them. There is tumbling that can be extremely dangerous because you are doing a series of flips and if something goes wrong you can get injured just like that. Competitive cheer is very upbeat and fast paced and that is why I love it.

I used to do softball which made mom very happy because I was following in her footsteps, but I was scared of the ball so I stopped. One day we were driving and we saw a cheer gym and we decided to go inside and look around. The owner of the gym taught me how to do a back handspring and I would have never thought that one single back handspring would begin my love for cheer. I decided to be on the team. It was my very first competition and I didn’t know what to think because it was my first. When we went back to warmups there were so many cheerleaders and I was very overwhelmed. It was our turn to go out and perform, the announcer called our name and we walked out on to the big blue mat. I hardly remember my thoughts running through my head when the music started but I did the best I could do for the team. When we were walking off the mat and everyone was cheering for us I knew that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.

In 2014 I was on the level four team at the gym that had started my cheer career. Half of the team were seniors and that meant when the season was over they would leave. Everyone could feel that this was going to be a great year. It was our first competition and we had gotten second. We were not very happen and neither were the coaches. When we got to practice the next day we worked our butts off trying to be the best. Let’s just say it worked and we were winning every competition. One of our big competitions was coming up and if we got first and got the highest scoring routine out of all the teams, we would win a bid to the summit. We were about to go on and I was so nervous because I di not want to let down my team. They announced our name and we walked out. Everyone cheering for us, the bright lights and the blue mat. Our music started and I put on my game face. We had a flawless routine. We were so happy when we walked off the mat because we knew we had done great.

The wait for awards seemed like forever but when it finally came my team and I gathered on the mat in a circle holding hands a crossing our fingers they had announced third and we were anxiously waiting for second and they didn’t call our name and we knew we had won. I was so happy because when you won at this competition you got a leather jacket that said national champion on it. They were announcing highpoint which is the highest scoring routine in your division. We were sitting there talking and then we heard our name. We had one highpoint which means that we got rings that said national champion. My team and I were so happy and so were the coaches. They were announcing the bids and we were praying. The announcer said that it was coming from a senior level four team and all of our heads looked up and they announced our name for the fully paid bid to the summit that is in Walt Disney World. Everyone was crying and so were our coaches. I didn’t know what to think but I was so incredibly happy. I wanted to cheer for the rest of my life.