The ' The Meat '

The middle child gets along well with everyone, has the ability to adapt to different situations, and they tend to keep a low profile. The youngest child, also known as the baby, is essentially the life of the party and maintains a childlike attitude throughout their whole lives. 2. According to Toler, the birth order plays a role in our development by embedding certain characteristics

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

Being on the team for my first year was the turning point of my life. I was the beginner who could not learn the dances as fast as the other girls. I felt alone and a burden to the team. The hardest thing I had to deal with was not making the

My first cheerleading tryout had been so much more nerve wracking than I would ever think. Around 4 years ago, my friend told me how her cheer team were having tryouts and I should join. Right away I said yes, but I wasn't exactly serious about being a cheerleader. With tryouts just around the corner my friend, Jo, helped teach me some of the basics. I straight away thought i was pro and ready for

Junior year of high school I had reached my limits and had become clinically depressed. I had no interest in school, and I had considered quitting my schools cheerleading team. I felt alone and underwhelmed with where I had imagined my life was going to go. My dream was to become a state champion with cheerleading and to place in the top 10 at the National High School Cheerleading Championship, I had already made amends with the idea that it was an unreachable goal. I had completly given up. Ready to quit, one of my teammates had taken notice in my dismissive persona, she had also brought it to the attention of the rest of my team. They began to push me harder then they he'd ever pushed before. They helped me realize that I was great again.

I take pride in having a strong relationship with every girl from the Frosh/Soph team to the Varsity squad. I may not be a captain, but I know I am an influential leader on the team. I have witnessed my team losing with no spirit and dominating with energy and determination after I come off the bench cheering and high-fiving everyone. It will always be easier for some to give up and blame others for losing or not playing, but it’s more fun to be enthusiastic and spirited. I plan on always being a positive and self-motivated person because there is nothing I love more than hyping up my team and improving their morale, particularly when it helps spur us to

I made sure to act very confident at tryouts so it would not be a repeat of the year before. The high school tryouts felt completely different. I was more confident, louder, and overall a better cheerleader. All the hard work I put in really paid off. The day after tryouts, I remember I was in the parking lot of the eye doctor’s office when the teams had been posted. I was so nervous I would be let down again, so I made my mom check first. Typically freshman year girls cheer for the freshman team, but my mom did not see my name there. Panicking, I took her phone and double checked scrolling to see the other teams. Sure enough, my name was not on the freshman team. My name was under junior varsity! I surpassed my goal I made a team that only a few girls my age

Being a varsity cheerleader isn’t always fun. Its’ great to hang with the girls and cheer our team to victory, yet no one really sees behind the scenes. Anyone can be a cheerleader, but, not everyone can a great cheerleader. As every freshman never fails to display, there were countless times where I felt trapped within my body and encompassed in self doubt. It has always taken me longer than the rest to grasp a new routine or cheer. Took me about a full year to learn how to stunt and tumble. I’ve often felt that I was holding my team back from reaching its full potential by not being at the skill level that many mastered in their elementary gymnastics days. I found that drowning in my self pity only kept me at my current state: inadequate.

Every since my friend Layla was little she had always dreamed of being on her high school cheer team. She would often call me over to her house just to show me new moves that she had learned from watching videos on YouTube. Once she got into middle school she had no problem with making the team she even got picked captain from 6th through 8th grade. She pretty much had guaranteed spot on the high school squad. That tragically all ended when she found out she had to switch schools. She had to leave this atmosphere where she had made a name for herself, knew everyone, and everyone was pretty much African American or mixed to an all white school.

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.

Luckily, I had a group of girls who I could always rely on to cheer me up and to give me advice. The older girls would share their high school experiences with me and would answer any questions I had, and as I grew older, I unknowingly obtained a leadership position as I was the one others looked up to. I may not have a brother that I could see all the time, but I gained a whole team of sisters who were always there for me. I owe it to my teammates for allowing me to open up and discover who I really am. The first week of practice, when I was known around the gym for being the new girl or shy girl, my coach told me something that I’ll never forget: “We’re all crazy here, and it’s ok because being normal is boring.” Gymnastics is a sanctuary to me; I am everything I am today because gymnastics gave me the courage to voice my personality and my opinions. My practices allow me to relax, to relieve myself of the stresses that have built up during the day, and to be someone that I am truly proud of. It also has impacted my academics and social life at

Again, tryouts came for the next greuling school year. The only difference from last year, I was prepared. I knew the cheers, I knew the feeling of standing in front of crowd so ecstatic from a winning game and I knew the feeling of a crowd sitting at a loss for words in the face of defeat. I knew my goal and I was absolutely determined to reach it. I could only be described as a lioness on the prowl and the Varsity squad was my prey. Just as anxious as the year before, though this time with a hint of confidence, I made my tryout a culmination of completely everything I had learned from my wildly experienced past. That night, I reached my ultimate goal and earned the prized name of Varsity cheerleader. The next day I practically walked around with an enormous V on my forehead, honored by the position. With all this positivity, I knew there was something to come. That same summer, I hadn’t received a lucky chance to become even a contender in the

I am a middle child. I am not the assertive, naturally confident first-born, nor am I an attention-seeking youngest child; I am the quiet, quintessential middle child. For the first 16 years of my life, I was always an afterthought to the craziness of my two sisters, and I loved it‒ it made me independent and self-reliant. I have always been very comfortable being the easy-going child, happily accepting anything that comes my way. Never have I felt that my parents loved me any less; they merely had to worry less about me than they did my siblings, with their stubbornness and constant desire for affirmation. I easily slid under the radar, preferring to mind my own business and handle problems on my own. There was never anything wrong with my

Each child has his or her own personality. Typically the firstborn is a natural leader, while the last is always the baby, but what about the overlooked middle child? The middle child can sometimes feel lost in the crowd when it comes to family dynamics. They crave their parent’s attention and are willing to do anything to believe they have it, but immediately close up when it comes to conflict, they become people pleasers. They will do anything to make their parents, or others, happy. This makes the middle child a skilled peacemaker and negotiator (Varma, 2013). They are amazing listeners because of the fact they hate conflict,

Even though youngest siblings always try to do what they can to not be compared to their siblings, being the youngest does not always have perks. We do not get as much attention like our older siblings do and we sometimes do not feel the same love the parents give to their first-born.