Cheer

Yesterday I made a trip into what I call the real world, the world I left close to 50 years ago, the world where a huge majority of North Americans live - the city. After so many years of a fairly quiet rural existence, cities tend to overwhelm me - the crowds, the noise, the traffic, the contrasts between opulence and poverty. But this trip was well worth the effort. What a unique experience! It's amazing what humans can do with their bodies. I'm not talking about Olympians -  I'm talking about girls (mainly) of all ages working hard together as a group to build routines to present before judges in the sport of Cheer.

 

My idea of cheer stemmed from my grade 8 cheer leading experience, shouting cheers, bouncing around with pom poems, and urging our football team to victory. But, judging from the number of participants in the three separate competitive Cheer events held yesterday, it's obviously different now, and more popular than I ever imagined.

 

Cheer is very active, requires lots of cooperation, balance, and  practice (3 nights a week). It is a lot like gymnastics but concentrates on tumbling, cartwheels, throwing wee girls like my granddaughter up into the air, dropping and catching them, and is done as a team. There's a zillion different levels and I never did get them straight, basically it seems like the higher you fly the more advanced the level. There's moves that are not allowed in lower levels. It is a judged sport, like figure skating, so it's hard to make your mark, but the team my granddaughter is in did make a mark, second place in their division! (Did you just hear me CHEER!).

 The music (I'm showing my age) was really loud and sorta had a sassy, don't get in my way, I'm cool attitude. The competitors knew the songs, you could see them singing along. I never understood a word. The announcer was also loud and hard to understand, the seats were cramped and hard, and the entire show was long, long, long - too long for an elderly woman such as me. (Yes, I'm almost being forced to admit that I am elderly, not because of my age but because the escalators were broken and I had to rest on the way up the stairs, while the cheer girls practically flew up them.) But it was worth a trip to the metropolis to see that little gal so happy, so proud, and so accomplished! And yes I know, I sound just like a grandmother.