Welcome back guys!

I will be explaining everything that went down on the third day of the cheer camp that I attended with my high school cheer team at Knott’s Berry Farm. I’ve already posted about the first two days there, so go check out that if you haven’t already! The camp was from July 29th to August 1st, so I’ve just been recollecting my thoughts and returning to posting. Day 3 was definitely a difficult one because we were starting to lose our energy, it was an actual full day (the previous day we ended early to go into the theme park), and it just felt so close to the end yet still so far. However, it was Rally Night and we got to dress up according to the theme (Road Trip USA) so there was still something to look forward to.

Our day started at 6:15am yet again, with me being the first one to hop out of bed right as the alarms went off so I could be first in the bathroom. My roomies and I got dressed and ready for the day, except one of my roommates actually slept in- we tried to wake her and everything, but she wouldn’t budge until 6:50! After she woke up, the rest of us waited for her to finish getting ready so we headed to the breakfast area a little later (around 7:15). There wasn’t much for breakfast besides bagels, so we ate some snacks once we headed back upstairs. We went to the hydration station to fill up our water bottles and then met up with our coaches and everyone else in the lobby at 8:00 to walk to the field together.

On our way to the camp set-up, we took more team pictures. We also had to take team pictures by specific landmarks or in specific poses as part of a camp challenge- whoever took the best picture got spirit points. The actual camp session began with dynamic stretching to music again (a little too quick of a stretch for my liking, but it’s kinda fun how they try to pump you up while doing it). We went through more material review (the camp dance, cheers, etc.) and then it was time for another stunting workshop. My group wasn’t doing as well as we did the day before, but it was still a good practice opportunity. Once that workshop ended, there was another specialty class session. My coach sent me to the hip-hop routine, which was actually pretty fun. It was a super fast-paced dance so I never got it fully down when we did it to music, but I enjoyed learning it. That class lasted about an hour, and then we got into another workshop with our Staff TeamMate.

John (our staff teammate, read my post on Day 2 to find out what that is) was responsible for helping us put together stunts for the end of our dance routine that we would be performing later in the day as an evaluation. It wasn’t a fully open session though because it was kind of another stunt workshop in a way; the staff showed us a few pyramid stunts we could do and inbetween each demonstration we were encouraged to try and insert those in our routine with our staff teammate. We ended up with a pyramid where one stunt group had their flyer doing a backflip and catching her at the top in extension, and two stunt groups (one was mine!) having their flyers brace that flyer and help flip her over. The remaining two stunt groups on our team did straight-up extensions off to the sides. It took us a lot of trial and error to settle on that stunt combo, so we finished around the time that the workshop was over. It was time for lunch!

This day probably had the worst lunch- there was just a bunch of slices of bread and lunch meats laid out so you could make sandwiches, but that was basically it. I made myself a turkey sandwich on some form of egg bread (it was really soft but it wasn’t white bread so I’m assuming) and quickly ate it so I would have more time to relax in my room. Once my roomies and I went back upstairs, I ate an energy bar and a bunch of candy to fill myself up. We went on our phones and freshened up before going back downstairs to meet everyone around 12:45 and walk to the set-up.

Once we got back to the field, it was time to showcase the routines from the specialty classes. I completely forgot the dance but it didn’t matter because it was over quickly, and it was still fun to watch the other classes perform. It was then time for more practice for our evaluation with our staff teammate! We focused on just piecing the dance part with the stunt part and also adding a short jump section in the beginning. At first, all of the parts were hitting only separately and not together, but we just kept drilling it until it all worked. Performance/evaluation time was around 3:00, but before everyone performed there were a few more announcements.

The staff announced the spirit awards (we got one the day before, but not this day), and they announced the Pin-It-Forward recipients. These were people selected by staff members that stuck out as leaders or just people willing to help others around them. They would receive two pins, one for themselves, and one they would pass on to someone from a different school that they found deserving on Day 4. A cheerleader from each of our school’s teams was chosen, so we were all very proud of our teammates! After we had finished celebrating, it was time for evaluations. I was actually nervous since we had basically just put together this routine today and there was a lot of pressure from our coaches to do well. Despite the nerves, it actually went SO well! I messed up a little bit on the dance and it wasn’t my cleanest performance, but it was a solid routine and all of our stunts hit.

I also loved evaluation time just because I enjoyed watching the other schools and teams perform. Our varsity team CRUSHED their performance, and the freshmen had a clean dance but unfortunately their pyramid stunt didn’t go up. The USA staff played music and gave us a mini dance party while they deliberating on the evaluation decisions- this time, we wouldn’t have to wait a whole day to get our results, and we would get ribbons! Once they were ready, they had each team circle up as a staff member came to reveal their results and give them their ribbons. Our team got a superior, which we were thrilled about!! We all immediately attached the beautiful blue ribbon to our cheer backpacks. 🙂

The last actual workshop of the night before dinner was just material review on the cheers and the band chant that we would have to perform the next day at the Game Day evaluation. They would call out a situation that could occur at a game and we would have to decide what type of cheer to call (defense vs offense vs general) and then each team would perform the band chant. This went by quickly and then there was a short period of time where captain candidates had to go over the goals we set on Night 1 but other than that, we were basically free for the night!

Dinner was once again not the greatest- they served fried chicken with biscuits and nothing was too flavorful. However, the apple pie they had for dessert was very good, and that’s coming from someone who’s not the biggest fan of apple pie! After eating, my roomies and I headed up to get ready for the theme rally party. The theme was USA road trip destinations, so our team chose to dress up as stereotypical Beverly Hills moms/housewives as a joke. The freshmen team dressed up as Area 51 aliens and the varsity team dressed up in different college gear, so there was definitely a variety of costumes out there. I wore a tank top, a tennis skirt, and a preppy green sweater tied around my neck with oversize sunglasses and a low ponytail. Lots of my teammates wore visors and pearl necklaces as well- it ended up being both a cute and funny look.

We met in the lobby around 6:45 and headed to the field to start the rally off. It was divided into sections by grade level- my whole team (JV) is sophomores, so we all headed to the sophomores section and sat down. There were lots of games played in order to determine which grade level was the most spirited and the ultimate champion of the rally; seniors won (they won at camp last year, and seniors always win at our school rallies.. it’s just a senior thing) but it was still fun to participate and yell out the sophomore chants. Next came the famous dance party! They played all the typical songs that play at these functions like the cha cha slide, the cupid shuffle, and more, plus a mix of popular songs that were current and that were throwbacks. After the DJ played the last song, it was a little before 9:00. We could stay on the field and take pictures, but we also needed to practice.

The coaches took team pictures of us and then we had to review the material for the game day evaluation really quickly. The last thing we had to do before leaving the field was the coaches needed to select who would be participating in the Jump-Off and Tumble-Off the next day. There could only be two people from each team, so our coaches had anyone who wanted to be in it do their jumps in front of them in a variety of different combos. After our coach made her choices, we were free to walk back to the hotel. We got back a little after 9:00, which was actually the earliest that we had gotten back out of all the nights so far. Since we had so much time, most of my team went into one room and played a card game that someone brought (it was like Cards Against Humanity but for girls specifically, I forget the name) while we gorged on everyone’s junk food snacks. We got bored of the game quickly, so my roomies and I went back in our room and DoorDashed ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

After devouring our ice cream- I got mint chip and it really hit the spot- we started getting ready for bed. I showered first this time which was nice, and then I laid out all my stuff that I would need for the last day/rest of camp and packed everything else up since we were leaving tomorrow! While my roomies showered and got ready for bed, I started to clean up the rest of the room and throw away trash. Once most of our stuff was packed up, we hung out with our adjoined-room-roomies for a little bit. Our coaches sent us a text instructing us to give the gifts we assembled before camp to our “big sisters” at this time, so we all split up in order to find our bigs and do so. When we returned to our room, there was one last thing we had to do: take a survey and vote on our captains!

This year, our coaches decided to choose captains after camp instead of before so they could spend most of camp observing the candidates. Anyone who was running gave their speech at our last practice before camp, and now it was time for us to give our feedback and vote. We went in the room connected to ours and filled it out in the company of all the people in there, but we were pretty much silent and keeping our answers confidential regardless. The deadline for the surveys was 11:00pm aka lights out, so as soon as we all turned them in we went to bed. My roomies and I set our alarms and thanked the universe that we were almost done with this crazy camp!

I hope you guys enjoyed learning more about my experience at cheer camp; it might seem boring or like not that much actually went on, but in the moment it was extremely hectic and tiring! Let me know if you guys have any requests for content as always. I’ll be posting about the final day of camp tomorrow and then new content will be coming from there.

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to be writing about my experience on the second day of cheer camp. I already posted about the first day of the four day/three night camp at Knott’s Berry Farm I attended with my high school cheer team, so go check that out if you haven’t already! I’m glad to be home and formulating posts again- I apologize that it’s been taking me a while to get these up. I’m still recovering from the tiring adventure and there’s a lot going on in my life since school is starting up again in just a few short weeks, as well as my fifteenth birthday! Regardless, I’m ready to share the rest of what happened at cheer camp (before I forget it all). Day 2 was probably the most fun day because even though it was a full day, camp ended early so we could enter Knott’s Berry Farm for a few hours at night.

The day started at 6:15am as my phone alarm went off in synchronization with my roommates’ alarms. The four of us ended up staying in bed and catching up on social media (we hadn’t really been on our phones since the bus ride the day before) until 6:30. I was the first to get out of bed and start getting dressed/ready for the day. We all got into our matching team outfits (a white tank top with our school logo and blue shorts plus cheer shoes and our bows) and packed our bags for the day, finally wandering down to the meal area around 7:10. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, and muffins for breakfast- it was actually one of the best selections they had out of all the camp. We sat with the rest of our teammates and it only took us about fifteen minutes to wolf everything down.

We didn’t have to meet our coaches in the lobby and head over to the camp set-up until 8:00, so everyone headed back up to their rooms to relax and mentally prepare for the day a bit more. We were all kind of zombies anyways; I just laid on the bed until it was time to head downstairs again. Our coaches had us check in with our “big sisters” and take team pictures before we got all sweaty, and then we walked to the field. The USA staff opened up the camp with having everyone circle up and get pumped up while they played some music. We did dynamic stretching to music, went into some review of the material we learned the day before, and then it was time for another stunting workshop.

It was basically just a practice to prepare for the Stunt Challenge that followed right after; my group made it through the Stunt Challenge in the novice/intermediate division so we got ribbons that got us into the final round for day 4! We were super excited because we had actually switched flyers for the day and weren’t expecting to be hitting all the stunts. After the challenge, it was time for the first specialty workshop of camp. When it’s specialty workshop time, it’s basically where they hold a bunch of mini-classes (some examples were a basket class for stunting, a hip-hop routine class for dancing, etc.) and before you choose where to go they showcase what you’ll learn in each one. My coach sent me to the sideline routine and cheer class where we learned another band chant and general cheer, and it took us a little over an hour to perfect it.

It was around 11:30 when the specialty class finished up- finally lunch time! Lunch was not the best; they had pizza and salad with chips so I was excited at first, but the pizza had a strange aftertaste. No one felt like eating outside so I actually brought my plate upstairs to the rooms and ate with a bunch of other girls. We hung out for a while and I eventually went back to my room to freshen up and redo my hair before meeting back in the lobby. We had to head downstairs again at 12:45 and we began walking to the set-up again.

The next thing in store for us was meeting our Staff Teammate. A staff teammate is a member of the USA staff that gets paired with your team to help design/perfect your routines and learned material for the Halftime Evaluation on Day 3 of camp and the Game Day Evaluation on Day 4 of camp. My team got paired with a staff member named John and he was super nice! We started working on formations for the halftime evaluation and warming up stunts, then we practiced the dance (the Sweet but Psycho one all the freshmen and JV teams learned on day 1). We had a few water breaks inbetween but it was really just a bunch of practice for the next day. Once the staff teammate workshop ended, it was time for the Spirit Star semi-finals.

They didn’t do Spirit Star at camp last year, but basically a few people that showed lots of spirit and were helping others/picking up material quickly were given ribbons by camp staff members. This ribbon was their ticket into the Spirit Star semi-finals where they would perform a cheer, jump, and tumbling pass to compete for a spot in the top 10/finals. 3 freshmen and 3 varsity cheerleaders from our school had gotten these ribbons, so the rest of us cheered them on as they performed. Everyone was so amazing (from the other schools too!) and it was INCREDIBLE to see the tumbling people were throwing, even on the bumpy grass! One of our varsity cheerleaders was called back to be a part of the top 10/finals on Day 4, so we were very excited about that.

Since the Spirit Star performances had just occurred, what better time to do a showcase of the routines everyone learned at the specialty workshops earlier? For people that were in some form of dance/sideline class, we had to go up and perform the routines that we learned. It was kind of embarrassing since I messed up quite a few times, but no one was really paying too close of attention. It was almost time to end the session for the day so we could get dinner and go to the theme park, but there were two last reveals: which schools had gotten a Day 1 Spirit Award, and what rankings we had gotten on our Day 1 fight song evaluations! There were six awards to go around so most schools got one, but it was still so exciting when the staff member ran up and gave us one of the famous spirit sticks. They also gave our coaches the certificates with our rankings, and all of my school’s teams got Superior (the highest ranking!). Our coaches were pleased so we ended the day of camp on a good note as we headed to dinner.

It was taco night (as I’m writing I’m just realizing it was Taco Tuesday) so there was a bunch of different toppings with the standard taco meat and shells, and there was still salad as well. The dessert of the night was some form of strawberry tart thing. The tacos were okay, but the dessert was actually WAY better than I was expecting. As always, we ate quickly and headed back up to our rooms. Since it was the night that we could enter the park, we could change out of our matching school clothes and into a comfortable outfit. We still were kind of matching though, because we were instructed to wear t-shirts that our “big sisters” had decorated for us. I put on my t-shirt (it was tie-dyed our school colors and had my name and graduation year on it) and black leggings and an outfit had never felt better. My roomies and I ate some snacks in the room and finished getting ready before meeting everyone else in the lobby around 6:30.

We were surprised to find a Costco cake waiting for us downstairs; apparently it was a varsity cheerleader’s and a freshman cheerleader’s birthday, so one of their parents brought a cake. I was happy as a clam since chocolate cake is probably my favorite thing ever- everyone sang and ate until it was time to go. Our coaches gave us our Knott’s tickets and we walked into the park together. We were allowed to roam free as long as we didn’t go off alone, and we had from 7:00 until 10:00, where we would meet back at the entrance/exit. I had never been to Knott’s Berry Farm, so it was definitely a super fun experience! For reference, I enjoy roller coasters and theme parks, but I’m not the BIGGEST daredevil- the craziest ride I’ve ever been on is probably just the giant loop that I can’t remember the name of at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I wasn’t really craving a big thrill because of all the cake I had eaten, so I mainly went on smaller rides.

I stuck with one of my roomies/my close friend and we met up with more people along the way. Eventually she split off with a few other girls since they wanted to go on one of the bigger roller coasters that had a super long line, whereas me and the other people we were with didn’t want to wait in line or go on a huge ride. Instead, we went on smaller rides/whatever had a short line, and stopped for Dippin Dots. It was actually a really fun night and the park was a lot cooler looking than I expected. We went on the water rapids ride, a smaller roller coaster, a roller coaster where the entrance was some sort of temple, a spinny-type ride (I’m horrible at explaining things!), and repeated a couple of those. We met back up with everyone else around 9:45 and walked back to the entrance together.

Our coaches did a head count and then led us back to the hotel. It was already after 10:00 when we got back which meant there was no time to hang out in other people’s rooms- my roomies and I went straight to our room and started the showering/getting ready for bed process. I went third and ate some more snacks while I waited. After we were all done, we hung out with our adjoining-room roomies for a while and watched Big Brother on TV. Our coach came around 10:30 to give us bottled water and do room checks for everyone, and I think it was around 11:30 (the official lights out time) when we decided to go to bed. We set our alarms for 6:15 again and fell asleep, satisfied that we were officially halfway done with camp!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about another day at cheer camp; this day was probably the most interesting since we got to actually go to Knott’s Berry Farm. I feel like walking around the park and going on rides (the screaming on rides and thrills is always a bonding experience) together was probably the best unintentional bonding experience we had the entire camp. Posts covering the last two days of camp will be up very soon, and then I’ll be coming up with more back to school content! Let me know if you guys have any requests and tell me when you start school- I start August 21st 🙂 It’s coming up way too soon!!

-Brooke

Welcome back everyone!

Today I am going to be detailing everything that happened during my first day of cheer camp with my high school cheer team. My school’s cheer program (all three teams- freshmen, JV (my team!) and varsity attended a three night/four day camp hosted by USA (United Spirit Association) at Knott’s Berry Farm’s resort hotel. Last year we attended USA’s camp at UCSB and stayed in the dorms there, so staying in a hotel was an obvious upgrade. I already posted how I packed/a cheer camp packing list, so if you’re interested in that, go check it out! Here I will be explaining what to expect if you’re going to a USA camp or any form of cheer camp, so keep reading if you want to know how the entire day went!

I had to wake up early (around 6:15) in order to get ready and finish packing the last few items into my cheer bag before driving to school and arriving at the set time of 7:30 am. My carry-on suitcase and overstuffed cheer backpack in tow, I said goodbye to my mom and hello to my teammates that I would be spending the next few days with (between this camp and our normal practices, we have spent a LOT of summer together). We loaded onto the bus and finally departed around 8:15, ready (kind of!) to take on camp!

The bus ride was about two hours; I sat next to one of my close friends and we just chatted the whole time. We arrived at the hotel a little after 10:00, but it took forever to check in since not all of our rooms were clean/ready yet and there were a LOT of us, not to mention the other schools there too. Everyone was stuck waiting in the lobby with our massive cluster of suitcases in the center near the main sitting area. Around 11:00 a few rooms for each team were ready, so EVERYONE on that team was instructed to put their stuff in one of those rooms until later. My entire team also ate our lunches in one room since we had to bring a sack lunch for that day; the first meal the camp was providing was dinner.

The opening ceremony of camp wasn’t until 1:00, so in that window of free time we just waited for the rest of our rooms to be ready. A little before 12:00, everyone else received their room keys. Roommates were determined by our stunt groups within teams, so I was in a room with my flyer (the close friend I mentioned!), backspot, and my other base. We were all ready for camp since we had been wearing the pre-determined clothes and hairstyle for the day since this morning, so we used the time to unpack and get comfortable. Our coach made us all mini-camp survival kits with candy and snacks plus lanyards with our names on it to keep our room keys in- we walked in the room and they were on our beds, so that was adorable! My roomies and I brought a bunch of snacks ourselves, so we organized the stash before leaving our room to meet everyone else in the lobby and head to the opening ceremony.

We walked past the park on our way to the event area/field where the actual camp activities were hosted; we got to walk by a bunch of cute food shops and gift shops and my mouth was definitely watering from all the theme park food. The camp appeared to have a lot less teams than the one we went to last year- there were only about 7-8 schools represented, I would estimate. During the opening ceremony, the camp staff introduced themselves and explained how the camp worked (the different things we would be doing, the material we would learn) and we immediately jumped into learning a few cheers. They taught a general cheer, a defense cheer, and an offense cheer. Once we got those down for the most part, they taught us a band chant that went to the tune of Party In The USA.

Next up was our first stunting workshop- since we attended an Elite level camp from USA versus a regular one, the stunts they showcased were much more difficult. Most people on our team (including my group) were more at an intermediate level, so we went to the Novice/Intermediate section of the workshop rather than the Advanced/Elite. We worked on hitting the stunts we already had learned at practices and just making them more consistent, then trying a few new things. During the workshop, the staff would demonstrate a new stunt every few minutes and explain each person’s part in it, then give us some time to try it out. We stunted for a little while and then it was time to learn a new dance!

All of the teams were split into two categories: JV/Freshmen teams and Varsity teams. The JV and Freshmen teams learned one dance to Sweet but Psycho and the Varsity team learned a dance to 7 Rings. Luckily, ours was taught in a shaded area- it was SO hot out on the field. The dance was cute after we actually picked it up and finished learning the choreography. Everything’s definitely taught at a fast pace at camp, but I eventually caught on. After learning the dance, it was finally time for dinner! They released us and all of our school’s teams walked back to the hotel together. Dinner wasn’t actually provided by the hotel’s restaurant; there was a separate area outside under tents and there were a few buffet lines and then tons of tables set up. We had barbecue chicken with salad/vegetables and a brownie for dessert- it was honestly not the best, but I was glad there was a dessert option for my sweet tooth.

We had some time to go back up to our rooms and chill before heading back to the field for a couple more hours of camp, so I freshened up and re-did my high ponytail. I also ate some candy to make up for the lack of fullness from dinner. Our team had to meet back in the lobby around 6:00 and we walked to the field once again. It was time for our first evaluation of camp- the Fight Song evaluation. We had perfected our routine back at home so we weren’t too worried about it; it was just our school’s fight song except for the last section of it instead of doing the motions, we would be doing stunts. I was kind of nervous to actually perform but it went well and all of our stunts hit. Watching all of the other teams was fun too; our varsity and freshmen teams did amazing, and it was fun to get a glimpse of the other schools’ talent.

As it started to get dark, we moved into the Lagoon area that was adjacent to the field. The staff started teaching the official camp dance of the year (you’re encouraged to learn it before camp since there are instructional videos online which we did, but they still review it at camp) which was easy since I already knew it. Most of the other teams there had already learned it as well, so we didn’t spend too much time going over the counts; we started practicing it to music almost right away.

The last camp festivities of the night were related to team-building/bonding, which was a nice break from all of the normal active stuff. All teams circled up and went through their short-term and long-term goals for the season (mine is to get my back handspring on the floor!). Once the captains/representative of each team wrote down everyone’s goals, we could participate in some team building games. My favorite was one where we had to pair up and go on each other’s backs; the person on your back had to cover your eyes and guide you through a bunch of obstacles. We finished all the games and soon it was completely dark outside. There was a short closing ceremony for the day that included going over the hotel’s rules, our required times for being in your room/lights out, and our schedule for the morning.

We arrived back at the hotel a little after 9:00 and everyone was extremely tired. However, it wasn’t time to shower and go to bed yet- we had sophomore and junior bonding! Every sophomore was paired with a junior to be their “big sister” and because of this, we had planned to do bonding with all of the sophomore/junior cheerleaders in general until we had to be in our rooms. There were too many of us to comfortably fit in any one room, so we all met up as soon as we got back to the hotel in this gazebo area in the courtyard towards the back of the grounds. Our big sisters gave us gifts- mine gave me a bunch of my favorite candies and a Starbucks gift card that I can’t wait to use. 🙂 We played some games together like Never Have I Ever and just random things like that until our coaches pulled us into the lobby for a meeting at 9:45. They told us we would have to wake up in the 6:00 hour to get to breakfast around 7:00 and just some other various announcements for the day, plus congratulating us on how our fight song evaluations went well.

From there, we had to go back in our rooms since it was now 10:00. My roomies and I decided the shower order; I was going second. We laid out our outfits for the next day and started getting ready for bed. Our hotel room was connected with another stunt group from our team/four of our other teammates, so we could go into their room/hang out with them after 10 just because it technically wasn’t leaving our room. Once the four of us had showered and were ready for bed, we just chatted with our technically-still-roomies until about 11:30. At that point we were all ready for bed; we turned the lights out and I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the pillow.

I hope you guys enjoyed this camp day in my life type of post- it definitely gives some insight on what it’s like to actually attend cheer camp. It’s definitely a crazy and extremely tiring experience, but it’s a tradition and always brings our team closer together. I wrote about my days at yearbook camp in a similar manner about a week ago (I can’t believe it’s only been that long), so check those out if you like this type of post! I will be posting similarly for each of the other three days and those will be up soon, so be on the lookout! I actually just got home yesterday, and being in my own bed has never felt better. As always, let me know if you have any requests (cheer-related or otherwise), and stay tuned for more content!

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

Today I wanted to discuss something that I have never previously talked about in detail on my blog: my personal writing. I mentioned in my post about why I started my blog (go check that out!) that I liked to write and starting this blog has been an outlet for that, but I never really dug deeper into my other writing experience and projects. Part of the reason for that is that I really don’t have a lot of concrete experience; I’ve just always enjoyed putting ink to paper and jotting down any thoughts I have. However, I thought I would just talk about my writing a little more and throw it out there for any fellow aspiring writers to read and maybe relate to.

My love for writing sprung from English class and a childhood love of reading; I’ve always been sort of a geek in that way, but I just LOVED English and diving into new books, whether they were school-required novels or books I picked up at the library to read for fun. I don’t read as much now unless it is for school just because of my busy schedule, but I’ve re-read a decent amount of my old favorite books this summer. Since I loved to read so much, English has always been my favorite class. Once I got into middle school and English class ventured more into writing assignments/essays, I fell in love with writing as well. I was a meticulous journal-keeper from the ages 5-8, but I had little writing experience other than that until middle school.

Any essay or paragraph writing assignment I had, I would spend the most time on out of any of my other homework. I would analyze every word I used (I wish I still had time to do that when I write!) and I could proof-read and edit for hours. I always did pretty well on these assignments as a reflection of my hard work, and in eighth grade a couple of my pieces got selected by my honors English teacher for our school’s literary magazine- I still have the paper copy of it in my closet somewhere. Last year (freshman year of high school), essays became more of a nerve-wracking task. Most of the ones we wrote were timed in-class essays; we had 45-50 minutes to complete them and rather than being exciting as all other writing assignments had always been, they made me nervous and I dreaded them. I learned to work with the time constraint and I still usually did pretty well grade-wise on them, but it wasn’t as fun as when I could take my time.

I still loved my 9th grade honors English teacher and all of the literature we read in that class; however, it wasn’t fulfilling my love of writing in the same way due to the fast pace of assignments and the fact that outside of essays, we didn’t really write that much. I started to seek out other ways to write for pleasure and express that part of myself. I discovered a whole new world of people publishing their writing in teen literary journals online, and began reading some beautiful works. I started to read poetry and attempt writing my own- I even submitted a couple poems (not sure how good they were..) to some of the literary journals I stumbled upon; I haven’t heard back from any yet since it wasn’t too long ago, but I’ll give an update eventually.

Finding all of these fellow writers and reading their AMAZING work was a blessing but also a curse in some ways. My work paled in comparison to theirs; I’ve always been strong in essay writing and I used to jot down little anecdotes about my life in journals, but I’m not the best at shaping creative ideas into something beautiful like all of these poets and storywriters that I was coming across. There was also the fact that I just didn’t have a lot of time inbetween cheer, homework, and volunteering to really hone the craft and keep writing (both for fun and to build my skills). I tried to set aside a little bit of time for writing each day and I’m still currently doing so, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I try to make up for this by reading other works when I have a spare moment in the car or looking things up related to writing on my phone, but I know the best way to gain more experience is to just sit down and write. I’ve been trying to make that more of a priority.

Lastly, I want to mention a specific teen literary publication: Polyphony Lit. I stumbled upon Polyphony somehow (I honestly don’t remember how) and I LOVED the way they were running things. They’re run mainly by high schoolers that sign up to be editors and give feedback on all the submissions (you move up in ranks the more you edit/improve/stay on the staff), ultimately choosing which pieces to put in their publication for the year and returning the rest with a bunch of feedback so the writers can improve! Since anyone can sign up to be the lowest rank of editor, I signed up and did a trial edit assignment; they accepted me and as soon as I return from cheer camp, I will be tackling my first submission! Before I signed up, I also submitted one of my own pieces- it wasn’t the best so I don’t have high hopes, but I haven’t heard back from them yet so who knows. I also purchased their most recent edition of the magazine/book. I devoured it within an hour or two- the people featured in it are truly so talented and all of the pieces were amazing. I highly recommend checking them out for yourselves.

I hope you guys enjoyed learning about my experiences with creative writing! I’m trying to spend more time on my writing and I have a few ideas/pieces I want to work on in mind and possibly submit to publications later, so I’ll probably give updates on those at some point. Let me know if you have any questions or would like more posts related to writing! I’m not an expert or a full-on author by any means, but I would love to chat with other writers. I’ll be back with more exciting content soon!

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

I’m going to discuss a topic that I found fitting considering I left for cheer camp today. I am a cheerleader at my high school; this is my second year of school cheer but my third year of cheer overall as I competed on a beginner’s team at my local competitive cheer gym in eighth grade. After participating in the two main types of cheerleading today (competitive aka “all-star” cheer and high school cheer), I feel that I’ve learned a lot about the sport and all its ins and outs. Cheerleaders definitely don’t have the best reputation- being one comes with a lot of stereotypes and assumptions. I want to address some of these and offer my perspective as an average cheerleader.

First, I would like to clear up that cheer is NOT how it is generally portrayed in movies/social media/the average person’s mind, etc. Cheerleaders are not always the popular, stuck-up girls that rule the school and date the football players. Fun fact- I wouldn’t consider myself friends with a single football player. Of course there are going to be a few girls like that, but you can find those types of people anywhere and not just in cheer. In fact, cheer actually has quite a pathetic reputation at my school- people often make fun of the cheerleaders and call them wannabe dance team members. Cheer and dance are VERY different sports (ask any cheerleader or dancer!), but people often view them as similar; at my school, our dance team just has the better reputation since they are a very successful competitive team whereas our sideline cheer team does not compete. Our school does have a competitive STUNT team, but it’s fairly new/lesser known, and I chose not to join it so I can’t say too much about it besides the fact that it’s very intense.

It frustrates me when people make fun of cheer and say that it’s not a real sport. Yes, sideline cheer/non-competitive high school cheer is not really a sport and I totally agree with people who argue that. However, any form of competitive cheer is 100% a sport- in my opinion, one of the most challenging sports out there. Tumbling and stunting are both very difficult to master and require a lot of strength, and cheerleaders have to make it look easy while also incorporating jumps and dancing/motions. Also, even if high school cheer isn’t always considered a full-on “sport” because we don’t compete, it’s still frustrating when people disregard all of our hard work because of that very fact. We put in as much practice time and work into our routines as any other sports team would for their games. My team may not be out on a competition mat, but we’re still working on jumps and stunting while perfecting dances and halftime routines (admittedly, we don’t do much tumbling at all).

My cheer team has actually had practices all summer, so I believe we do work extremely hard. Our coaches have been conditioning us a lot and we usually run a mile as our warmup every practice. We’ve been putting in even more work than usual the last week (personally, I hadn’t been at practices since the middle of June because my family trip conflicted with some and then we had a break from cheer in July for a while) since we are gearing up for camp. When this post goes up, I will be in the middle of our first day at camp; we go to a four-day cheer camp each summer to bond and gain more skills as a team. The camp is hosted by USA (United Spirit Association) and this year the location we are attending camp at is the Knott’s Berry Farm resort hotel.

I will be posting soon about my experiences at camp- it’s definitely a crazy busy time and a lot of hard work, but I’ll get the posts up as soon as I can! I also already posted an article about how I packed for camp and my essentials for any sports camp in general, so check that out if you haven’t already. I hope you guys enjoyed this little insight on what it’s like to be a high school cheerleader- let me know if you want more cheer related content and be on the lookout for those camp posts! I’ll be back soon, wish me luck for the rest of camp 🙂

-Brooke

Welcome back everyone!

Today I am going to be telling you guys everything I packed for cheer camp and my recommendations on what you should bring if you’re attending a cheer camp (or any sports camp) yourself! My high school cheer team is attending a four day/three night camp at Knott’s Berry Farm (hosted in the hotel on the grounds, I believe), hosted by USA. USA stands for United Spirit Association, and we attend one of their camps every summer; we also go to some of their local events and clinics. Last year we went to their camp held at UCSB where there were no linens or toiletries provided, whereas we staying in a hotel this year that provides a few of those things. Therefore, I definitely packed a little less this year: no towels or bedsheets!

Here’s everything I packed for this adventure:

• My cheer uniform (liner- long sleeve part, shell- tank top part with logo, skirt, undershorts)
• Cheer shoes
• Socks (no-show)
• 3 pairs of Varsity shorts, 1 black and 2 blue (these were part of our required uniform order, I prefer Nike Pros but we have to wear these as a team)
• 3 Varsity tank tops with various school logos/phrasing on them (again, part of our required uniform order, we had a certain shirt for each main day of camp)
• 3 pairs of pajamas
• Extra change of comfy clothes (including normal bra!!) for bus ride home
• Theme outfit for the rally night – the theme is USA road trip destinations, we brought a bunch of touristy type things (that’s the best way to describe it I guess)
• Underwear
• Sports bras (1 white, 1 black, and two others of random colors)
• Jacket
• Black leggings
• Nikes – there’s one night where we can go into the park, so we need non-cheer shoes
• Sunscreen!!! This is necessary if you don’t want to get badly burnt; most cheer classes are outside since dance teams practice inside always.
• Reusable water bottle – I have a Hydro Flask that I always bring to anything cheer related
• Phone charger
• Portable charger – Everyday is LONG and your phone will die if you don’t have one
• White bow
• Bow with our school colors and logo
• Poms
• Cheer backpack – we have matching ones from Varsity
• Toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, hairties, bobby pins, deodorant, perfume, hairspray, lip gloss, mascara, highlighter, bronzer, concealer, razor, soap, shampoo, conditioner, makeup remover, face wash, rubber bands for braces, chapstick, etc. **Disclaimer: my coaches made us bring makeup so we could wear it for our evaluation routines. Camp is hot and tiring so if your coaches aren’t making you, I would recommend NOT even worrying about makeup.
• SNACKS!! Depending on your camp location (college = dining hall food, hotel = it depends), your food options may not be the greatest. Plus, all the working out will make you hungry in-between. I recommend bringing Clif bars or your energy/protein bars of choice, other quick snacks, and Gatorade chews. A good rule of thumb is to bring anything you would eat before or during a normal workout.

I hope this list helped any of you guys that are also attending a cheer camp or sports camp soon! I know USA has a lot of dance/cheer/etc. camps, so maybe some of you guys will be attending one as well- let me know if you are! I leave for camp on Monday and come back Thursday; I will definitely be posting about each day’s experience eventually, but I’m not sure if I will have time to do it while I am there. Either way, that content will be coming shortly. Let me know as always if you guys have any other requests.

-Brooke