About four years ago, an awkward and shy eighth- grade girl was told to get involved and try something new in high school. Going

from a class of nine to almost two hundred was scary, and I had been told that getting involved was the best way to meet my future classmates. Although I had zero experience, and movies and TV shows made it look horrible, I felt compelled to try out for cheerleading. By some miracle, I made it. Four years of cheer ew by. Looking back, I believe trying out was one of the best decisions I ever made in high school. Cheerleading has taught me many lessons and was so much more to me than just the uniform and the poms. No, I don’t think it’s

a sport, but I do think it deserves more respect and support. Cheer gave me the con dence to get out of my comfort zone and to face fears head on. Fans in the stands might not be paying much attention to us, but getting up in front of an entire student section to scream, jump around, and wave sticks with shiny plastic pieces of paper on them (poms) is still a little unnerving. Plus, if you don’t like hearing your own voice, imagine listening to yourself yell for over an hour. Yikes! This de nitely was not in my comfort zone. Luckily, you’ve got the whole squad with you, and it feels more like singing in a choir than singing a solo. Along with this, I can proudly say cheer helped me conquer my fear of heights quite a bit. At rst, the idea of standing in three people’s hands and hoping they didn’t drop me didn’t strike me as something I

would be willing to do. However, with the encouragement of my teammates, I was able to overcome my worry and do something pretty amazing with a lot of help from my bases.

Finally, I made some of my closest friends through cheer, and have some of the greatest memories with them. From crazy scavenger hunts at cheer bonding, to losing our voices on the side of the eld or court, I’m going to miss every second of it. Cheer brought so much joy and excitement into my life, and I can’t believe how quickly the time passed. Win or lose, we always supported each other, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to cheer on the Saints during my time at Xavier.