Flashbacks of Cheer

Posted: December 3, 2010 at 6:08 pm

There are no words. That doesn’t happen often in these parts. 😉 So, I guess I will keep it simple. Thank you. I love you.

The immediate outpouring of support and kindness from each of you after my last post humbled me like no other. You all know that I try to keep things honest here and believe it’s important to do so. I always will hold true to that belief, but that doesn’t make certain posts and topics any easier to write about. But you all...you all always make it easier to hit publish because I know I can trust the presence of your openness, ready to catch me and uplift me when most needed. I felt better about the whole body image thing after getting it off my chest, then even more as the day progressed with your many words of encouragement.

Unfortunately, the day still dragged. I had no energy, yet plenty of aches. I had no me time, yet a lot to work on. My act of kindness for others today? It goes to Peter by not complaining when he works on  his friend’s car all afternoon and night despite my need for a break. It also goes to his friend, because I know he needs his car back and me putting aside my needs so Peter can work will help that happen.

Anyways, I felt like doing a Flashback Friday post after my cousin posted a video on Facebook earlier this week. Things got a bit off track earlier though. 😉 It all works out! This post is all about cheer!

Some of you may know that I used to be a cheerleader. I didn’t quite fit the stereotype, but I loved it and did it for 14 years of my life.

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I started at 4 years old…

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Then, continued on through elementary and middle school. Check out the bangs and large pink, plastic frames. So hot!

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I also cheered competitively for awhile. That was lots of fun! I loved the rush!

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I miss doing things like this, but please note that video is not when I cheered. It’s the one my cousin shared recently.

I cheered all the way up through my senior year of high school. Which sadly, I don’t think I look much older now than that decade old picture. I know it will be a good thing when I’m 40, but for now I don’t care to look like a teenage mom.

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I even loved it so much that I coached for awhile. What can I say? I couldn’t let it go. My sister would kill me if I told you which one she is below. She couldn’t possibly be the girl looking in adoration at her older sibling. Hehehehe.

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I got over the cheerleading bug eventually, but if I catch a competition on TV - you better believe I am watching!

It’s always fun to go back and look at old pastimes. What extracurricular activities were you into back in the day?

 
39 Comments to “Flashbacks of Cheer”
  1. I cheered too, and actually coached as well! I coached for 4 years after highschool, but it was just a but demanding since we were a competitive squad. I was training clients at the time and it just really cut into my work. But I still love cheering!

  2. Band geek and drama club. I played the flute/piccolo.

  3. The 4 year old photo of you looks so much like M! Too cute, bangs and all 🙂

    I was into leadership in middle and high school. I did public speaking contests, took an active role in student government and was Class President. I was not an athlete at all!

  4. Tatianna says:

    I never cheered… but I secretly wanted to (gasp!)
    I definitely don’t fit the cheer stereotype, but something about the energy, the music and the cool gymnast moves drew me in every time. I pretended like I thought it was dumb, but I always wanted to try out. I wish I had the confidence back then!

  5. mm says:

    I cheered too! For 9 years – 4th grade all the way through high school. We did the competitive cheer thing, and even went to Nationals in Orlando a couple of times. I also played tennis for a couple of years (not for school) 🙂

  6. allison says:

    I loved cheering!! I miss it so much:( I only cheered in high school, four years of varsity and my jr and sr year i was the co-captian! We had a smaller squad since i went to a private school but we still had fun and did awesome stunts. I pretty much only liked cheering cause i got to fly! If i wasn’t the flyer im not sure how much i would have liked it haha Most of the squad didnt fit the stupid mean stereotype, my best friend the other captain and I both had the highest psat scores at the school as well as being in the top 20% of our class. High school is such a crazy world, so unlike real life, its weird to think about now lol

  7. Becca says:

    Let’s see, in 1st and 2nd grade I took dance and gymnastics; 3rd and 4th grade was piano; 5th grade I was on “newspaper” (which was not as fun as I thought it would be); 6th through 9th grades I was in nothing (kind gave up); and then in 10th or 11th grade I joined the yearbook staff. My senior year, I was “editor” — I was a “student aid” for one of the advisors and spent half of that term scanning senior photos for an entire 90 minutes. I was the only one in my grade to stick around longer than about a month. Ughhh.
    And now I’m helping with JH kids! (Though the transitioning thing is sucky.) I don’t know what I’ll end up doing next.

    Not a cheerleader. Not athletic or (stereotypically) “peppy” enough for it. But I like to watch the Bring It On movies—for the artistry of cheering, not for the drama. 😛 I like to watch figure skating and gymnastics for that reason too—it’s something I could never do, but it looks so cool! Skating is dancing on ice, and gymnastics is so cool! I used to do cartwheels all the time—it was like my “thing.” Haha. I’d just randomly do a cartwheel and my friends would all just smile and kinda laugh… Never could master the round-off and all of that, but I’m good at cartwheels! =) I think I still keep a little bit of a dancer’s mindset, too, even though I was like six when I took the class. I point my toes and still sometimes do the foot positioning thing—1, 2, 3, circle… whatever. I forget what it’s called, but I do it sometimes. =)
    We’ve got a couple of pictures of me doing handstands in funny places — our gymnastics class had this thing where we could give the instructors photos of us doing a hand-stand somewhere and they’d put it on a board or something. I don’t remember the significance, but it got me to try hand stands. 🙂

    • Tina says:

      I loved cheering for the gymnastics and stunts too. A lot of the other parts of it didn’t really appeal to me all that much honestly.

  8. ohhh my gosh, your cousin’s squad is amazing! toe touch right into back tuck!? woww!! anywayyyyyyy… I did all kinda of activities growing up: dance team, cheerleading, volleyball, chorus, basketball, tennis.. you name it — i’ve tried it!!

    do you ever visit your cousin in Columbus? Cleveland is only 2 hours away!

  9. Camille says:

    Back in the day, I was a gymnast. I ended up giving it up when the company I was with wouldn’t let me continue moving up levels because I was horrible at the bars. I asked them to let me move up on the floor because I was really good at it, but they wanted me to be good at all the events. Unfortunately, that was the end for me. I kind of wish I had stuck with it :/

  10. Katie says:

    I loved (still do and always will) sports and exercise! My main sport was soccer, I played from age 5 through high school and on a club team in college. I also ran cross country. Sports growing up are my BEST childhood memories!

  11. Natalie says:

    Flashback Friday is fun! I was a gymnast back in the day. Looking back I wish I would have done track and/or cross country and something musical.

  12. Oh wow, I never had the athleticism to be a cheerleader, though I guess it really wasn’t my thing anyway. I was the art kid, paintbrushes in my hair and everything. I stayed after school til nearly 5 almost every day working on my portfolio and even painting murals for the school. My whole life I thought I was headed toward art school but when the time came to enroll I just didn’t want it as a career anymore. I think that’s why cooking came easily for me, it was a way to reintroduce that creativity I’d been missing.

  13. Gooo Tina!

    I cheered all 4 years of high school, too! I miss it, which is why I’m excited to compete in Fitness so I can dance, jump around and perform again!!! Woohoo!!!

  14. Meg says:

    Ah, man. I was a cheerleader for a year in highschool (it’s a really shoddy reason why I got cut the next year) but I LOVED it so much. Sometimes, I’ll teach my husband partner stunts, but I’m too scared to teach him anything too scary. 🙂

    What a fun flashback, I’m so glad you shared!

  15. You might not believe this, but I was a nationally ranked baton twirler! I even competed at World’s. I relate to loving this sort of activity. Thanks for sharing Tina!

  16. Wow– that first picture of you looks so much like M!!

    I never cheered…but always secretly wanted to! I’m SUPER uncoordinated so…yeah. 🙂

    • Tina says:

      What’s funny is I am super uncoordinated too. I’m SO clumsy but I would somehow manage to do all the tumbling and dancing and stuff. People never understood it. LOL

  17. Oh, man I did most everything. I graduated with 14 performing arts credits, though, so I guess that was my focus (theater, orchestra, choir). I wanted to try out for cheerleading, but my mother forbade it, and wanted to play soccer for the school (I played community league), but didn’t think I was pretty enough. (I know, odd thinking there.) If I could go back I would get my younger self to try out for the team.

  18. Lee says:

    When I was in elementary school, i did soccer and gymnastics, but in high school – nada. i was in the student organization for animal rights. ha!

  19. LindseyAnn says:

    I ran track and cross country for my high school, but my first love has been and will always be marching band. I started when I got to senior high (10th grade–freshmen were at the junior high in my town and didn’t march) and continued it through my fifth and final year of college undergrad. I lived for August when Band Camp would roll around, and in November I was exhausted but quietly devastated when the marching season came to an end. I also played in my high school and college concert and symphonic bands, and also in the hockey pep band in college. I miss playing so much.

  20. I just got a chance to read your other post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings with us, good and not so good. I feel like no one really talks about that side of pregnancy and I know I appreciate hearing it because I’m sure I’ll be feeling like that at the time.

  21. Oh my goodness – M looks JUST like you in the picture of you when you were 4!
    I was a cheerleader in elementary school, but quickly realized it wasn’t a crowd I fit into – I was a total DORK and the other cheerleaders didn’t quite accept me…I was totally fine with it though.
    I ended up becoming a band geek thru and thru – and I loved every year of it! I marched in the marching band all through high school, and even picked my college because they had the best marching band in the state – I marched there for another 4 years! (Should note, IUP also had the best criminology program in the state too, so it wasn’t really just for the band…)
    What I was really into though – and miss terribly – is Drum and Bugle Corps. (Only way to describe it is “marching band on steroids”). It’s a summer activity & you toured throughout the US and Canada for shows. I marched with my group, Lake Erie Regiment, them for 7 years until I “aged out” when I was 21 years old. After that I taught with LER for another 3 years. It was a huge part of my life & definitely helped make me who I am today!

  22. chelsey says:

    Cool post! I used to be a swimmer in high school – I loved it. I do love watching competitive cheerleading though. It’s one of my favorites on ESPN!

  23. Allie says:

    Awww you were such a cute cheerleader and you TOTALLY look the same- so young! I liked this post a lot 🙂

  24. Ameena says:

    I SO wanted to be a cheerleader but my parents were not having it! I played piano for 10+ years and I’m still no good. I think my parents would have been better off allowing me to pursue what I wanted? 🙂

  25. I was in cheer and gymnastics when I was younger (through middle school) and thought they were both so fun. I couldn’t continue in high school though because I played basketball, volleyball, and ran track. Basketball was my first love and always my favorite.
    Thanks for the blast from the past. 🙂

  26. I was a cheerleader too! AFter gymnastics, there was nothing left to do besides cheer!

    I always had to tumble though because I was good at it.

    I hated cheering at games, but I loved being on my comp squad. I was on a comp squad for school, and then stritcly a competition squad. I need to do a flashback like this sometime!

  27. kyla says:

    I was a cheerleader for a year in 8th grade. I did soccer, basketball, and tae kwon do which was a lot of fun! Theater and choir were always my thing though so when I got into HS, that was what I did. I’m so glad I did too, some of my best memories from HS were related to choir and drama. I miss it so much!

  28. I synchronized swam and speed swam (which I tend to talk about a lot) but I also did figure skating, gymnastics, and was in the book club and chorus (even though I had the worst voice evvvver)

  29. I love this post!!! Always fun to look back in time to High School memories! I played volleyball in high school and my junior season we went to the 5A texas state championship game, and lost but it was still a cool experience b/c we were the first womens team to do that, and I made All-State team 🙂 haha

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