Personal Narrative: Shirquita Dishae Blackwell

Ten years ago, if someone had told me that I would be a cheerleader at the collegiate level, I would most likely have laughed in their face. Now as I sit here getting ready for practice, I laugh thinking of how I entered the world of cheerleading. Going into my freshman year of high school, my mother told me I had to try out for cheerleading. So, naturally, I cried. There was no way I would be a cheerleader. But as they say, mothers know best. Growing up, I participated in every sport imaginable; gymnastics, basketball, track, lacrosse, and even golf. Changing activities often became familiar for me, as I would get bored quite easily. After I had made the decision to take up cheerleading full time, I felt like I was downgrading. I felt

I remember the orange walls in our living room. The depressing atmosphere in the house that day. I realized what was actually happening when they started fighting in front of Luci and I. They would fight about the silliest things, but this one was the biggest. Dad cheated on mom. They made us go back to our room, we didn't listen. We peeked behind the hallway and watched those bright orange walls turn dark gray. They were yelling and screaming and mom was sobbing, barely able to talk. It was a horrible day. When dad moved out Luci and I were very confused and weren't exactly sure what was going on, we were only so young. My mom got very sad and cried a lot. We stayed with grandma most of the week, and I always loved seeing her. Mom got more

There are events during cheerleading that change freshman year for me. When I first join cheerleading, I didn’t know many people, and there were about twenty girls on the team, and I only would talk to about five girls. I was able to accomplish many things, such as relearning stunts, and I became successful with cheerleading. When I relearned these things, I felt so proud of myself because I haven’t done cheerleading in six-seven years, and I was able to accomplish the things I’ve wanted to do. This is what happened to me when I join cheerleading again, and I realized how fun it was again.

I have been involved in athletics my entire life, at the age of BLANK years old I began taking tumbling classes and participating in competitive cheer. My love for cheerleading grew and I soon was old enough to tryout for the Jr. High and then high school cheer team. Although I was extremely busy with cheer I decided to try something new so in the spring of 2013???? I became

While my dad was gone a lot had gone on with my mom that had really changed my life too. When I was first born my mom and dad has split up and my mom moved to California and met up with one of her old friends from high school. My dad was also seeing another woman at the time too. While all that happened my mom and dad both had kids with the people were seeing. Later on my mom and dad had got back together. My sister had always grew up knowing and thinking my dad was her dad but when my mom and dad had split again they told her that that was not her father.

I really liked that time of my life and even though my dad was not with us, I felt safe and loved. When my father came back from Iraq (he worked there as a builder for two years), we moved to his parents’ apartment and lived with father’s mother for some time, before she went to live with her sisters. Years between I was 7 and 19 years old were a sort of unpleasant dream. My father used to get drunk every day and he often stroke my mom, he even stroke her when he was sober. He never respected her, never talked to her nicely, he was always distant, always angry and almost always drunk. I remember one night when my parents began arguing, I entered the kitchen and wanted to separate them (I was about 7 or 8 years old) and saw my father holding an axe in the air; now I know I came just in time, because when he saw me, he dropped it on the floor and mom immediately took it away. From that moment I

As we walked up to the 2 cars my dad asked my mom” who’s car do you want to take”, my mom chose my nana's car. When we got in the car I put the seat belt behind me, since it usually hurt my neck. As we were driving to the mall, I was really bored to I went on my phone and played a game. Since my seat belt wasn’t on the right way I was able to put my look towards the bottom of the car. As I was in the middle of the game I hear my mom yell at my dad, then I looked up to my dad yelling and stomping on the break. Ahead of us was a car turning.

Although I was 6 or 7 at the time, I understood things and was pretty mature for my age. I could sense the tension in the house. It was like 2 boxers getting ready to fight in the rink. My parents had sat my sister and I down at the table. They turned to look at each other once we had settled down. The glance my mom gave my dad was powerful enough that it made my dad start talking. At first, I tuned him out, but then he paused.

When I was around 13 years old, I noticed changes in my parents and how they acted around each other. I knew something was different. It felt cold in the house. I just thought they had problems going on, and that it wasn 't that big of deal. One day I had just come home from the last day of school in my 7th grade. I checked the answering machine for new messages and I found what I had least expected - a message from my mother 's divorce lawyer. Even though all the warning signs had been there, I was still surprised. Things were bad between my parents, and my mom had already threatened to divorce my dad once that year. They started going out on dates again afterwards, though, and I thought they were past all that. Before

My parents did not make the smartest decisions in their lifetimes. There was partying, drinking and drugs involved. They both hung out with some bad people and they both got themselves locked up once or twice. Then, I came along and my dad really started to change, my mom was still going out and not making the right decisions. My dad has been there for me ever since I was born. He was always there taking care of me when my mom wasn’t. My dad would sometimes wait up all night for my mom to come home and she never would. There was lots of arguing between them and

My dad was seventeen and my mom was fourteen when they got together. Both of them were really young with no knowledge of marriage. My dad has a history of alcoholism and my mom did not question my dad’s authority. My parents had an authoritarian-parenting style, they had high expectations for me and my siblings, but showed us little or no support. My mom was very strict, overprotective and demanding, and my dad always reminded us that we have to do good in school or else he would make us work. I grew up being afraid more of mom instead of my dad. My dad was never home, he always worked and provided for us. My brothers couldn’t join any sports or any school programs because my mom expects us to be home right

When I was about 7 years old me and my family were having lots of fun together until child protective service came to our house and told me and my two older sisters to go and pack our things because we are leaving at the time I had no idea what was going on at all. Next thing I knew we got into the vehicle and drove off and I went to the intro home and lived their for about 6 months until I got placed with my mom’s sister aunty Pinky I been with her for one whole year until I went back into the intro home for another two months because something happen at my aunty Pinky house, Then I got placed into another home with my mom’s first cousin uncle Kuma and His wife shannon I have been with them for 9 years now and they really helped through a lot during my life and my difficult times.

I was six when everything happened. My parents never really showed affection towards each other in the few years I remember. I only remember yelling and objects smashing against the walls. I only remember being told to grab my brother and head to my room while they fought. I remember pressing my ear against the walls to listen to what they fought about, but I never understood any of it. I never dared to walk out of my room while they fought because I knew I would be yelled at as well. Sometimes my infant brother and I would spend hours just sitting in my room playing with toys. We were held captive until one of my parents decided to let the other win.

My grandparents were going to travel to Laredo, Texas to see our family, and I wanted to see my cousins. So I started insisting that my mother let me travel with my grandparents, since my mom could not go for her work, and decided to give me permission. I was very excited because I had a lot time that not go to Laredo, and on the trip everything was fine my grandfather listened to music on the radio, in particular Vicente Fernandez or all the artists of his time. Then I got bored and became eternal the road, so I almost always fell asleep and my grandparents would lift me up when we went to

That night during dinner I mentioned that my 16th birthday was coming up, my parents gave a big long sigh, and they exchanged looks and said that honey for your birthday were going to be taking you and your sister to grandmas for your own good “YAY, grandmas” my little sister Laila said. It was very cryptic on how my parents had said “for your own good." I got up from my seat and walked into my room and started thinking about why my parents wanted me to go to grandmas for my birthday, but I decided not to think into it as much. I fell asleep that night. The next morning we all ate breakfast and went to the car. After one hour on the road, I realized that we passed grandma’s house half an hour ago. My parents stopped the car in front of the woods and got out all my bags and told me to keep on going until I see the school on the invitation that I got yesterday.