6A Never Give Up

Going into my third year on my varsity cheerleading team, we all had high expectations for the upcoming season. For months we practiced our routine continuously in order to perform it perfectly when we would take the mat later in the season. Our season was different that year; instead of taking the mat for our first performance in late January, we were invited to compete at Nationals in Florida during winter break. We were so proud and excited when we returned home with a third place trophy. Though we were after first place, we received comments from the judges that we could apply to make our routine better for the one competition that mattered the most to us, SCC’s (Southern Connecticut Conference).

The year before we placed second at SCC’s and we all dreamed of bringing home an SCC title, which would be the first in CHS cheerleading history. Once we got back from nationals, we were motivated to make the necessary changes to perform our best at SCC’s. But then the unexpected happened, three girls from our team quit just only three days before the competition. When our coach broke us the news, the whole team was devastated. With only a couple days before the most anticipated competition of the season we thought we had no other option but to withdraw from the competition. We sat in dead silence as our coaches decided what we should do about the competition. After we finished stretching our coaches told us we had two options; we could just forfeit the competition or could attempt to rearrange the routine and perform that saturday. We all unanimously agreed to do whatever it took to compete at SCC’s. For the next couple day we worked the hardest any of us had ever worked before, we wanted to put something together for the competition and not give up.

When Saturday rolled around we all were extremely nervous. We all hoped and prayed that our three days of hard work was worth something. The nerves hit harder as our team was called to take the mat. We all took a deep breathe and gave it all we could to make our performance the best we could perform. When it was times for award, we all sat in a circle holding hands. When we weren’t called for third place or second, we were sure that we didn’t place. But when we heard our name blare through the speakers and our coaches jumping up and down we were in complete shock. We couldn’t believe that we placed first despite what we experienced three days before. The whole team was extremely proud of how hard we worked the days before.

I learned the true meaning of persistence those three days. Though we were faced with a difficult task, as a team we came together in the end reached a goal we dreamed of achieving. We never gave up, we persevered though the tough times. I always think back to this moment when I am stressed out about a difficult task. I think about how strong my team was and how we worked through difficult moments and achieved our dream of winning SCC’s for the first time.