My Story. Basically my whole life I've been a cheerleader, or at least since I was 5 years old. My mom was a cheerleader, my grandmother was a cheerleader, and my sister is going to be a cheerleader, so you could say it was kind of a family tradition to hang out under those Friday night lights. When I started I loved it. I was absolutely one hundred percent devoted to that hair bow and those pom-poms, in fact I almost never left the house without them. I'm talking visits to the grocery store, grandma's house, even the doctor's office. I had never missed a practice, I mean it was a little difficult when my mother was the coach, but I never had the desire to because it was my real passion at that time. Everything changed in my freshman year of high school. Let's flashback to freshman year, shall we? I was officially in high school and everyone knows, anyone who is anyone is a cheerleader or a football player, so there was no way I wasn't on the Junior Varsity team, it was unimaginable. So, of course, I went to the auditions and did everything else; a little rah rah, touch here, touch there and so on. After the results came out it wasn't a shock that I made the team, after all I had been groomed to be a cheerleader practically since I could walk. I went through the fall season and loved it. The bond that formed between a group of stunt performers, those 3 year old girls who looked up to me and told me about their dream of wanting to be a Berwick cheerleader just like me when they grew up, there was really no feeling of accomplishment bigger. After football season ended, the team continued to cheer on basketball and wrestling, which I mean isn't as glamorous as football, but we all still got to hang out... middle of the card... ours were now at the cheerleaders' expense totaling nearly two hundred additional dollars. It was more of a commitment than I had been willing to make, so in the fall I played volleyball and dove into my senior year. With all the free time I had gotten from no longer cheering, I was able to get a job and save enough money. to buy my first car and give diving all the effort it requires. By putting all that attention into diving, I was able to get 2nd place in my district, in turn qualifying for the states where I placed 22nd. In my opinion, ranking 22nd in the state isn't that bad for someone who is just a junior. My improvement from year two to year three was an accurate representation of what a lot of hard work, a little luck, and the support of your family can accomplish. I can't wait to see what happens in my fourth and final year as a diver at Berwick.