October 9, 2020
Hello Cheer4Today Readers, It's Cheer Mom Jessica. Last season I started by telling you how "C" made the elite team of her dreams and how I was hit with the reality of all the responsibility and costs that went along with it. As I planned for my 2nd blog entry about our experiences flying cross country and competing at some amazing events... The Corona Virus set in and all of her other competitions were canceled. For the most part, we had no problems getting our hotel and competition fees back, but we did struggle to get our prepaid airline tickets back. To get a good price, we had to plan early and we had no idea what was going to happen with the country shutting down. it was really a tough time. Allowing my daughter to compete on a team like that costs a lot of money and I make an average salary so I really could have used a full refund on my airline tickets. ugh... Did any of you experience that? Did you get your money back or did you have to just deal with the loss like us?
Enough of last season, it is now a new season and after really thinking about it and weighing the options we agreed to let "C" come back and cheer this season. It didn't take long for her to get her skills dusted off and she is even working on a "specialty pass". She's super eager to contribute to her team. Some of the kids on her team have been part of this team for many years, but this is only her 2nd year on the team and last year really wasn't a full year. She is also a flyer this cheer season and she is a bit nervous. Last season at one of our first competitions, we heard 2 parents talking as they watch another team compete. I guess they were "rivals" and they were almost wishing that the flyer would fall. Do I think they wanted the girl to get hurt... no, but they wanted the team to lose points so their child's team would win. My daughter heard that and asked me if they realized that she could get hurt. I think sometimes people get so into the competition that they forget that every cheerleader is somebody's child and we should support one another. You shouldn't want another team to fail, rather you should want your team to be even better. I think this is in the back of my daughter's mind as she has been working on her elite stunts. I keep reminding her to just do her best. This will be a new experience for her.
Although none of us really know how this season is going to play out, we have to do our best with whatever we are dealt. Whether we end up traveling like nothing happened, end up doing mostly virtual competitions, or something somewhere in the middle; we just have know that in the end, it will all be ok.
Keep Cheering,
Blogger Jessica
