Good morning everyone!
Today I’m going to be discussing a more personal issue that’s been swirling around my brain lately. I’ve made multiple posts about my experience being a high school cheerleader (go check them out if you haven’t already!) and I am currently on the JV team. It’s the middle of football season and almost homecoming so things are kind of crazy right now, and with my already busy schedule I’ve had to think a lot about how I want to be spending my time. School sports are huge time commitments and they take up a lot of your energy and focus, so I’m leaning towards not doing it next year. In case you’re in a similar situation with your sports, I figured I would give you some things to consider and just to give an idea of where I’m at.
- I don’t need to continue- At my school you need two years of PE credit to graduate; by the end of this year, I will have fulfilled those credits from being on cheer both fall semesters of my high school career so far and doing PE both spring semesters. Lots of people at my school end up quitting their sport after these two years.
- Junior year is going to be crazy on its own – This is another reason why a lot of people at my school end up quitting their sport after sophomore year. Junior year is just so much work with all the AP classes and standardized testing and starting to think about college, and I’m not sure it would be realistic for me to continue cheer on top of all of that. I don’t want to overwork myself if I don’t need to.
- I’m not the best at it – I know you don’t have to be a superstar to do a high school sport and it’s more about enjoying it, but this has been a personal struggle for me. I’m not very athletic and the program has intensified its expectations as far as stunting, and I don’t want to disappoint my teammates/hold anyone back by not being up to a certain level. Also, there’s no guarantee I would make it next year- juniors and seniors have to be on varsity (our school separates the cheer teams by grade), and there’s so many other good people.
- It’s just so much time – I’ve mentioned this so many times, and it will continue to be one of the main things that deters me from wanting to keep cheering. I feel like for the amount of time I put into it, I’m not getting enough fulfillment out of it. I’m probably more physically in-shape, but that’s about it. I’m always tired after school since we have practice or games everyday, there’s so many extra events on the weekends/over school breaks, and it’s just a huge commitment.
- I might get a part-time job or internship instead/there’s a lot of other things I could put the time towards – I have a lot of other interests I would like to pursue, but I currently just don’t have the time and don’t want to stretch myself too thin; a lot of the reasoning for this is cheer. When I think of how much money I could make if I worked for the same amount of hours that I cheer, it makes me question my priorities. There’s a lot of other things I could put that time towards.
- The people aspect: coaches, team dynamic – I’m not the biggest fan of my coaches, point blank. They definitely know what they’re doing as far as cheer, but they play favorites and I am not one of them, and there’s a lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes. It’s kind of a mental struggle… I’ll go more into depth on this once I’ve exited the program.
- The reputation – People don’t really like cheerleaders; teachers assume you won’t work hard, peers assume you just want to be popular, and it’s overall not the best way to make a good impression on people. I’ve tried to not let this affect me and prove to people that I’m more than a stereotype, but it’s still there- we have to wear our uniforms to school every game day, and there’s just that certain image.
- I’m not in love with it anymore – This has been the hardest thing for me to come to terms with. Cheer has been such a huge part of my life for the past couple years; I fell in love with it in middle school, I was ecstatic to make the high school team, and it’s been a major component of my high school experience thus far. I’ve had a lot of amazing and crazy experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t decided to give this sport a try, and that’s why I wish that I could be naturally talented at it and/or still in love with it.
I hope this gave you some insight on where I’m at with cheer/high school sports right now. This is just my personal experience of course- I figured it may help some of you out there in similar situations though. It’s okay to want to quit something if you don’t enjoy it anymore, even if you’ve done it for a long time. You just have to make sure it’s the right decision for you and that you can leave with no regrets (and hopefully on good terms)!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 