Cheerleading | Lessons from my daughter

Because my post titled That happened! seemed to please many readers, let me tell you about another time when I was definitely not at my best.

If you didn’t see my earlier post That happened!, you should check it out. It’s a quick fun read.

So here it is!

Jonathan and I rarely go out together.

I know, that sounds sad but we have different tastes on many things so it’s easier to plan things to do separately and that way we both get to go out at different times and we don’t need to arrange for someone to be with Emily.

Once in a while, we plan a date night and we are lucky that Emily can spend the night with her Nana (Jon’s mom).

It normally ends with us taking a cab home because we drank a little too much.

On Jonathan’s birthday, we planned to go out with friends. Knowing that I had to go get Emily early on Saturday morning to take her to cheer practice at 9am, I was reasonable and only had a couple of drinks over the many hours we were out.

On Saturday morning, I got up on time.

I got dressed, packed Emily’s cheer bag and left the house.

I mapped the road in my head so I could treat myself to a decadent Starbucks Caramel Macchiato on the way to pick Emily up.

After getting my coffee, I got to the street light and had a feeling I was supposed to turn right than got to my senses and went left.

I got back on the highway and took the appropriate exit to go to …

THE CHEER GYM!!!

Yes, on the way to pick Emily up to get her to her cheer practice, I forgot to pick her up!

I was almost at the gym when I realized she wasn’t with me! Than it hit me… that’s why I was supposed to turn right at the light!

I turned around and went to get her.

Emily thought it was really funny that I went to the gym without her.

Am I the only one doing things like that?

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This weekend, we, once again, did something new.

Friday, I packed our suitcases and we were on the road as soon as Jon was done work.

On Saturday, Emily’s cheer team was performing at the NB Provincial cheer competition.

We drove for almost 3 hours to make it to our home away from home for the weekend.

Look at my cheerleader! She looks like a typical teenager!

Make-up time in the stands!

All dolled-up

Emily and her team did amazing.

They were the last team to go and by that time, I would say that the 800 or so cheerleaders competing plus their parents and families were back in the Civic Centre.

It was, after all, almost award time.

The place was packed and it scared me.

All day, I watched as cheerleaders and family from the gym of the competing team sat on the floor in front of the mat and cheered for their friends. You can see the people sitting on the floor in the picture below. That space is specifically saved for team mates and after each performance, everybody gets up and moved away while another group moves in.

It’s all really civilized.

As we approached 5:15pm, I grew nervous.

Will the other cheerleaders from our gym sit on the floor for our little team?

Will the crowd cheer for our girls?

I wanted to believe that they would but it scared me to think that maybe it wouldn’t happen.

I worry about things like that all the time.

Yesterday, I sat on the cement floor, took a deep breath, opened my eyes and witnessed a sea of purple cheerleaders filling the space around us!

And by a sea of purple, I mean, there had to be at least a hundred of them.

The space reserved for coaches on the floor could have been emptied because our coaches are on the mat with their team but the other coaches from our club sat there.

It was overwhelming to see all this support for our little team.

The music started and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Emily so I really didn’t know how the other did until I saw a video of their performance last night.

The girls did amazing but what made me tear up (again) was the crowd.

The crowd was cheering and clapping.

The girls were beaming!

At the end of their performance, they were all so proud of themselves, they were hugging each other and than something else happened… On the video you clearly see a sea of purple cheerleaders jump on the mat and celebrate with our girls.

This, I never allowed myself to imagine happening to Emily. My socially awkward girl was celebrating and accepting congratulations from other cheerleaders.

Emily and the other girls on the Pillars have developed friendships and we (the parents) are getting to know each other and becoming friends too but yesterday, it was so much bigger than the Pillars, yesterday, Emily was part of the Olympia Allstar Cheerleading Family

This doesn’t just happens!

It starts at the top with great ownership, this reflects on great coaches and it is passed to all the athletes. They all see The Pillars as one of their teams. A team that doesn’t tumble and fly exactly like the other teams but they tumble, make pyramids and dance like nobody else!