So, cheer is officially over!!! I can't say that I am not ecstatic. I mean I definitely enjoyed getting back into coaching and anyone who has ever coached knows how rewarding the experience can be, but then again when you have 15 teenage girls that you are in charge of, it can be enough to drive you insane. These last few weeks were especially stressful as we were preparing for our competition. In those weeks we had practice every day and our squad dwindled down to 10 so instead of practicing our routine over and over we had to constantly keep changing it to adapt to our new number. It was extremely frustrating for me because it caused me to stay up late at night making these changes, but also it was hard to see the disappointment on the girls' faces every time they found out another girl had quit. Why were all these girls quitting??? Well, I guess the only way that I can sum it up is that they were not dedicated and did not care at all about the girls (friends) that they were affecting by making selfish decisions. I was also frustrated with the parents of these girls who enable their children to quit when they don't like something rather than sticking it out. I feel if you make a commitment to something you should see it through good or bad and then afterwardes choose whether or not to do it again. I see these girls treat their parents with such little respect and, in turn, I got the exact same treatment from a majority of these girls. Again, I am grateful for the experience because I feel that i am learning to be a better parent by learning how to deal with a variety of different personalities. Also i am getting prepared for when I have 2 teenage girls in my own home. (I know I am a long way off, but practice makes perfect... right?) Anyways, yesterday was the Competition. 17 hours of cheerleading!!! we left at 6:30 AM and did not get back until 11PM. Cheer competitions are a way of proving yourself in the cheerleading world. You are proving yourself to the other schools, the judges, the parents, and colleges that come to scout out cheerleaders. In the case of our school we also had to prove ourselves to the other squads within our own school. This makes it very stressful for a coach, especially one who has not choreographed anything in over 3 years. I was so nervous and even threw up in the morning from butterflies. Even though we had to be there at 7:30 AM we did not perform until almost 5PM. So I had all that time to scope out what other squads were doing and how I might measure up. I felt like I was going to pass out from nerves!!! Finally we were up and I have to say that i am so proud of my girls. They did amazing considering what we had gone through in the last couple weeks and the limited time they had to practice our final routine. We hit almost everything and the things that we messed up on were things that could have been fixed with more time. I was so happy with the end result. In the end we were fourth place. It wasn't enough to get anounced or receive a trophy, but it was enough for me and the girls seemed to be happy as well. We had proved ourselves and showed that even through adversity we could get something accomplished. Thank you girls for sticking with it and showing so much dedication and working so hard. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to end the season with.