American Cheerleader

**Campus Confidential is a college cheerleader, who is anonymously sharing her experiences as an athlete at a top U.S. university.

I promise not to tell...; photos courtesy of The CW

Last week, a close high school friend passed away after a car accident. So, obviously, I was feeling really down all week—but I was looking forward to practice, mainly to get my mind off of things.

I arrived at practice ready to go, but our coach walked in late and in a really bad mood. And oh-my-goodness, I can’t even tell you how much I didn’t need that right then. I really just wanted to be in a positive place that would boost my spirits. We started tumbling and I was feeling good about it. I was setting really high and sticking my tumbling at the end to give it that POW factor. Our coach didn’t have many nice things to say though, so I just tuned out the negativity and focused on my teammate’s positive attitudes. I love asking my captains for help, because I feel like they always tell me the truth and help me step-by-step, in improving my layouts.

We were all so tired by the end of practice. We kept trying to put up our last stunt, but for some reason, both sides wouldn’t hit together. Not only was this making us frustrated but you should have seen our coach! Oh, man. It looked like smoke was blowing from his ears! We finally hit it and were able to relax and start conditioning. I wasn’t exactly in the best mood, and I kind of just wanted to go home, relax and talk to my mom. But it wasn’t going to be that easy.

After practice, our coach lectured us on our lack of energy and then informed us that he was bringing in two new girls for the competition team. I almost wanted to cry. It was so unfair, because we’ve been busting our butts and this was how we were being repaid!

Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to telling my coach that I wouldn’t be at our next practice, because I’d be home for my friend’s funeral. I expected him to say, ‘OK’, but instead his response was, “Um, you’re missing practice…?” My jaw dropped. I wanted to say, “Of course I’m missing practice—to say goodbye to my friend and be there for her family!”

After that, I jumped in my friend’s car and finally cracked. All the emotions I’d been fighting came spilling out and I couldn’t stop crying. My friend was so awesome though, and she just listened to me and told me that everything was going to be OK. I finally calmed down and asked her to tell me a funny story.

Do you think he noticed?

This is what she told me. “So, the other day, I was getting lunch with this really cute guy I like. He told me something really funny and I busted up laughing, and all of a sudden…a huge booger flew out of my noise! We both stopped to stare at it. I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out!”

When she’d finished telling her story, I couldn’t stop laughing! I’d gone from crying to laughing within a matter of minutes! Then she told me that she’d ran into the guy again, later at school, and he’d handed her a pack of tissues and said, “It’s OK. I’m sure it happens to everyone.” Hahahhaha! How embarrassing!

I’m so thankful to have a friend who would share her most embarrassing story with me, just to cheer me up.

So, that was my week…I have a bunch going on this week, too. I might even be going snowboarding, so I’ll definitely have a lot to share with you later!

xoxo,

Campus Confidential