give me a C, give me a H, give me a E, give me another E, give me a R! What does that spell? CHEER!

Yes, as you can tell by the post, I am a cheerleader. When people hear cheerleader, they assume a girly girl who stands there in a uniform with pom poms shouting annoying things, and yes that is a tiny part of the cheerleading I been a part of for years now. I am a competitive cheerleader for my university squad. We compete across the country at level 3 and I absolutely love it. we are the solent Ravens and this year you'll find us at ICC Guildford and Nottingham and FC Bath.

my beautiful squad at nationals

 I started this post a few days ago, before tryouts, just in case I didn't get on and was seriously upset, but yay I did it! I made the competition squad for the third year running and I also am now part of the Hip hop Dance Squad as well and SO BLOODY EXCITED FOR THAT! I was in the Hip hop first year and it was so fun, I definitely prefer the dancing side of performing the most. Although comp cheer will be amazing as my new flyer is TIIIIINY and so light, it's magical.

 

I am addicted to competitions. The whole atmosphere is amazing and really gets you going. At the last two competition I went to, I had suffered a serious hamstring injury and it got to a point where I couldn't even walk when I came off the mat, but when I was out there performing, I forgot about all the pain, it's just so fun and exhilarating you don't even realise or remember you're in pain. In my first year of competition squad, at the last competition we went too which was Nationals in Nottingham, I was elbowed in the riiiiiight in the face, and it right near the eye, and it was at the very beginning of the routine.. I spent the whole routine with my eyes watering but I didn't stop at one point and I still gave it me all for it, as the adrenaline is literally amazing.

Before I came to uni I was painfully shy and had zero self-confidence. Now thanks to cheerleading I have come so far out my shell the shell has disappeared. I now can never remember why I was that shy or being so shy, but I love how much confidence it has given me. If you're new at uni or going to uni in the future, I totally reccommend a university sport or society, or definitely cheerleading if they have a squad.

I probably will blabber on about cheerleading on this blog, as it's something I love but I thought i'd do this now to warn you all.