Geary & Fillmore | September 2009 | Copyright 2009

10/25/2009

For six years of my childhood, I was a cheerleader. Cheering was an enormous part of my identity - whenever I was in trouble at home and my mother would threaten to take cheering away, I would straighten myself out. I couldn’t imagine my life without being able to cheer.

Then, my senior year in high school, I didn’t make the squad. I was devastated. When Mom came to pick me up after school that day, she asked about the results of the tryouts. “I didn’t make it,” I said, and she gave me the expected amount of mom-sympathy. I didn’t cry. I looked at her and shrugged. “It’s no big deal. It’s just cheerleading. I’ll live.” To this day, when Mom tells that story, she ends it with, “And that’s when I knew what Methanie was made of.”

I have recently been delivered a life-changing blow, one that makes me sad and angry, yet simultaneously relieved and happy. It’s quite the emotional roller coaster, but I know that I will get through it. In the end, it will be no big deal. I will live.

Do you know something? That year without cheerleading was the best of my high school career. I got better grades. I spent more time with my friends. I was more relaxed.

Change is an opportunity. This new opportunity will not be squandered.

 

P.S. Hey, I'm in a "best photoblogs of 2009" contest. Won’t you please vote now? (You’ll need to register on the site to vote).

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