Memoir:

I loved being me. A tall, light skinned, skinny young lady with a whole lot of outstanding talent. My everlasting middle school years were finally over and the relaxing summer had come to an end. Tossing and turning in my oh-so-comfortable queen sized bed, looking at the silent ticking clock on the right side of my computer desk every five seconds, I impatiently awaited as my high school life was about to begin the next morning. 6:00 a.m. comes and my alarm starts blasting. I hopped out my bed like a big frog and started getting prepared for the day ahead of me. As I stepped my way on to the over-crowed school lot, some type of joy brushed passed my face. My smile became so wide with all my teeth showing to were you would’ve thought I won a 1,000,000,000 dollars. Khaki and black creased school pants, white collared shirts, new hair styles/haircuts, purses as big as shopping bags, brand new tennis shoes and high heels, you can tell that the girls and guys were ready for school.

Everyone had to sit in the cold auditorium until each grade level was called to receive their schedules. Shivering in the flappable gray seats, goose bumps arriving on every body part there was, chills been sent down my spine every second, and surrounded by so many students of all grades, I knew it was going to be a long day. The seniors, juniors, and sophomores were finally cleared out the auditorium and now it was finally time for us freshman. A dark skinned lady wearing a pretty pink dress with black heels got onto the microphone in called out 9-10 homeroom. I knew my name was going to be called because she had all the last names ending in R. Alexus Richardson, Jasmine Richman, Brandon Richmond, Tichina Riddle, and so on. As she called my name, I slowly walked up the long aisle way in front of all the other freshman to get my class schedule. I was kind of nervous, but all my friends were there, so that made it somewhat better.

The hallways seemed like a jungle in disguise. There were students everywhere! Teachers on every corner of the hall and every doorway, students bumping into one another trying to get to their next class, assistant principals in the hall yelling that you have 10 seconds left to get to your destination, and janitors trying to clean the halls while the students are transitioning to class. It was a hot mess. After the first day of it being a total mess, the school faculty seemed to have gotten the other days straightened out. During the rest of the week there was better transitioning to class, they had lots of activities for us to get involved in, and I got a chance to meet a whole lot of new people. Overall, the whole first week of high school was fascinating.

             Since I loved to be active and throughout my whole middle school year I cheered, I thought that I should continue my athletic skills and do sports throughout my high school year too. Cheer tryouts were in full bloom. Every high school girl wanted to be on the Whitehaven High School Tigers, most school spirited, cheerleading team. Cheerleading tryouts were just right around the corner. After practicing in my lengthy pink wall mirror everyday doing lots of stumbling toe touches and hurkies, I knew that I was ready for tryouts. On the second week of school in August, lots of girls from different grade levels were eager and ready to learn the routine that we all had to perform on Friday for the judges. Sitting in my last boring class, yeah, you know the type of boring class to where you have to fight to stay awake and where the teacher seems to purposefully make his or her students miserable, I impatiently waited for the loud earsplitting school bell.

Twenty minutes later the irritating school bell rang. Dingggggggggg! All the cheerleaders bulldozed into the locker room door crumbling up like little crumbs to change into their black cheer shorts and white tank tops to kick off the first day of cheer tryouts. There were six rows with twenty girls on each row and there I stood, number five on the first row. Every cheerleader that tried out had a little colorful number tag on their shorts each with a different number, and mines happened to be number 5. All the freshman girls had to get on the first row then the sophomores, juniors, and seniors followed behind us. When it was finally time to start everyone had to sit on the hardwood court to do stretches. The gym felt like a steaming iron already, so by us practicing in there we were really going to be exhausted. 30 jumping jacks, 20 sit-ups, 10 six inches, and then start all over again until we did two sets of each. Struggling through the exercise trying to catch every breath that I can, but I still maintained to pull through. After running up and down the metal bleachers, running from half court to full court back to half court again, they finally told us that we could go home.

On the next few days of tryouts, we learned one dance and a cheer to perform on Friday. The dance was a bit difficult, but it was something I can handle. We also were taught all the basic positions of a cheerleader. My arms felt as if heavy 1200 pound weights were sitting on top of them as I tried to hit every position that the observing coach called out: high v, low v, t, broken t, right l, left l, etc. Three older women dressed up in jogging pants and a t-shirt walked around the staggering cheer lines also to evaluate us. They made sure that every girl had the moves down pack in order to perform them on the next day.

TRYOUT DAY! Cheerleaders lined up outside the gym door waiting for their numbers to be called to enter the judging room. Everyone had on their black shorts and white tank tops all over again. As I joined the line with all the other girls, I become more nervous than anything. Maybe it was because I just knew I wasn’t going to make the team, especially since I was a freshman. Or maybe I didn’t think my skills would meet there requirements. On this day, I wasn’t confident in myself at all. The time was here though! Girls 1-4 cheered and hollered their way through the judging room with one girl stumbling over another. After they came out it was my turn. My body was shaking, heart beating fast, but I knew I had to go in and give it all I got. When everyone finished trying out, they lined everyone up in the judging room and immediately called out everyone who made the team. Jumping up and down, smile as big as a full moon, I received some good news. Guess what? I MADE THE TEAM! I didn’t give up. I strived for what I really wanted and I actually made it. With me going for what I love to do, I see now that anything is possible as long as you don’t give up.