Cheerleading

I saw a story today online that I thought was awesome. I am a casual celeb-stalker, I read some gossip magazines and occasionally care what they say - 90% of the time I think they go to way far and generally hate any kind of paparazzi nonsense (except the Lady GaGa song which I LOVE haha). But today I saw a story online about Dakota Fanning that I loved and actually made me miss high school. It was about how normal she is. Last week was her homecoming game - she's a cheerleader and she cheered at the game, stunted (she's a flyer like I was) and danced at half time. But then at half time she was announced as homecoming court and got the sash and crown and flowers. It was so cute, it made me like her even more. She didn't even look like she was wearing makeup. She must have some awesome parents.

But the story made me think about how much I loved being a cheerleader. I was never really a fan of the 'cheerleading group' thing - we didn't actually like each other - but I loved the dancing and stunting and generally looking awesome in a cheerleading uniform. Seriously, that uniform never got old neither did the pom-poms. I am girly and shallow enough to tell you that the day I got moved from backspot to flyer was one of the greatest days ever. I LOVED being thrown up in the air and being the top of the stunts where everyone could see me. If you’ve ever seen a TV or movie cheerleader with the stupid grin and overdone peppiness – that was me! I think it was my way of getting some of my excess crazy out.
Homecoming was always epic. Dancing in a miniskirt on the 50-yard line with hundreds of people screaming is pretty much the greatest thing ever to a 16 year old. Hell – it would still be the greatest thing ever. Not to mention I was in stupidly great shape. No one needs to watch what they eat when you danced and jumped around as much as we did. Thinking about it makes me feel old already – just a few years later and I really don’t think I could have dance practice 3 days a week and a 4 hour Saturday tumbling and stunting class then cheer at games every Friday night. Whew – that makes me feel like doing squats or pushups or something.

Yeah, I’m going to eat an apple or take a vitamin : )