February 16th, 2010 | 1 comment | Unfiltered

You know those moments that just blow you away? Moments where you ask yourself “how on earth did I just make it through that?” I’ve had a couple of those in my life. Moments where you can’t help but wonder, “what event in my life prepared me for this one?”

I was a cheerleader from third grade through high school. In high school I was on the Varsity team for my school as well as an All-Star team, since schools in Kansas weren’t allowed to compete under the name of their high school. Safe to say, cheerleading was my life for most of my adolescent years.

And so the story goes, we’d spend hours practicing for months leading up to Nationals. All for two and a half minutes of full-out routine time. No going through the motions, no walking through tumbling passes, no half-motions on dance and cheer segments. Full out – facial expressions, head bobbing, nailing passes, the whole nine.

Hundreds of hours of hard work, sweat, and more often than you’d imagine, tears, for two and half minutes. Two and half minutes to show your stuff, to show that you are the best team in the country. To go full out as if your life depended on it. Because if you are a cheerleader on a squad that makes it to Nationals – cheerleading IS life. This IS your world.

Performing in front of tens of thousands of people, regardless of whether or not you’re out there with 15-25 other girls, is a huge confidence booster. Or it can break you. If you’re the girl that can’t nail her pass, it kills you. If you’re the girl who can’t stick a liberty or can’t catch the flyer from a double down, it’s like torture.

But if you do nail it, if you can stick it, if you smile your whole way through and you are about to puke when you get off the mat because you went so hard, then it’s the greatest feeling in the world.

I went to Nationals in Dallas three times with my team. Seven and a half minutes of my life, in total, to prepare me for the big moments that come later on. Like when I was at SXSW and was asked what I want to do when I grow up by my now-boss. Seven and a half minutes on the mat prepared me for the moment that turned my life around.

Or when I decided to break free from a relationship that was destroying me. Seven and half minutes in front of tens of thousands of people prepared me for the moment I made that call. If I could jump and tumble and cheer and dance in front of thousands without a blip – ending this relationship should be a piece of cake.

And so it goes – seven and a half minutes of my life as a teen has actually been engrained in who I am. It affects how I deal with situations, how excited I get for new and exciting things, and how I carry myself.

And you thought cheerleading was only good for the boys. Pssh.

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