Nobody Told Me!!!

Help! Nobody told me! Nobody warned me! Nobody said ANYTHING!!!!!

OK I'm, skipping ahead here, sorry. So I helped my daughter open a cheerleading school, her very own safe place that all her students could come to and know they were part of something special, they were accepted and wanted and celebrated. It's great I'm super proud of all the amazing work she puts in to classes, routines, and her athletes.

The thing is, it got busy, like really busy, and we needed another coach. I was volunteered as tribute and sent to retake my lapsed qualifications. Now I never really wanted to teach, for one I really CANNOT dance. I was happy doing the paperwork, running things in the background. I have never felt confident enough to walk into a room of children on my own and command the respect that my daughter does.

Afterall, I'm just a mum, a cheer mum for sure, but still just a mum. I have never cheered myself, I hated dance when I was forced to go as a child, and I don't feel "adult" enough as a gen Xer/millenial hybrid, I am an eternal child and will forever look for the "adultier" adult in the room when asked a question.

But, I will always help my daughters, so here we are, with me teaching 3 classes a week and planning how to take over East Yorkshire with cheerleading and pom poms. Now, back to the thing that nobody bothered to warn me about, these pesky kids! They come to class every week, they need your help with their shoes or their hair, they have a million questions, they never remember their drink from in the car, constantly need a wee when you are about to start a stunt, and are so completely spellbindingly beautifully wonderful!

Why did not one single person warn me that I would feel so attached to these children? And that they would actually like me?! They bring me pictures they drew for me, little gifts, want to tell me their news from the week and have made me so much more confident in my own abilities just by being themselves. They always have a joke or a story (often a monologue) and they actually believe I know what I am doing! So much so that I have discovered I kind of think I do! I have put countless hours into researching techniques, finding ways of making conditioning fun, drawing on the knowledge of other coaches who I look up to and I know do amazing jobs.

I have watched our students grow in numbers, strength, passion and self belief over the last 2 years and I am in awe of how far they have come.

These athletes, these amazing small humans have taught me way more that I will ever teach them, they are the key to the future and I am so proud to know all of them.