Was I Ever a Cheerleader? (Today's Topic)

[StrollerStrider]

When I was little, whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always "a professional cheerleader."  Although I never went professional (I'm too short!), I started cheering in sixth grade.  I had already been dancing since the age of three, so cheer was a normal progression, and I loved every second of it!  I cheered before there were so many cheerleading documentaries and movies, before it was "cool."  But I was always proud of being a cheerleader. 

In fact, my senior year in high school, our football team had a "perfect" record of 0-10 (yes, I meant zero wins, 10 losses)... and by about the third game, people were coming to see the cheerleaders perform instead of watching the football game.  We were winning competitions one after the other that year.  :)

I didn't cheer in college, but continued to dance and try new things like the Latin Dance Club.  After college, I coached a youth cheerleading squad for two seasons.

These are the only two pictures I have scanned into my computer... both from my junior year.  The first one was after a competition at Universal Studios (I'm on the left).  The second one was in London.  I had earned a spot on the National All-Star team and we traveled to London to dance in the New Year's Day parade.  It was the coldest winter since WW2 (so cold they had to thaw out Big Ben before midnight on New Year's Eve!) and the doctors who were with us wouldn't let us wear our skirts.  We had so many layers on, it was almost hard to do our routine (to YMCA).  After running and dancing for three miles, though, we certainly weren't cold!  The picture is blurry partly because we were running by, and partly because my mom was shaking so hard from the cold.