Learning Experience #3: Perseverance

Perseverance: the word that seemingly makes it into every aspect of my college life. Without it, the days would be tough, stressful, and overall hard to overcome; however, thanks to perseverance, we can look at life with positivity, triumph, and victory. Starting this summer, I moved into college several weeks early for cheerleading boot camp/work week. This week is one that the vets had warned us about since the day we tried out. Now how bad could it possibly be, right? Well, pretty bad. When I pictured cheerleading, I imagined the football games, rowdy crowds, excited players, and immense school spirit. What I forgot to think through was all of the pressure, hard work, and sweat that would go into making those dreams a reality. Starting day one of work week, we entered the indoor football stadium, just us rookies, and listened to our coach call out the different tricks she was wanting to see us perform. Well… just moments before that, my roommate and I (who is also a cheerleader) went outside to warm up in front of Einstein’s Bagels before having to perform in front of our coach. Upon my trying my first trick, I wiped out so hard it was almost as though I forgot how to do a flip. Traumatized by this experience we entered the practice gym and patiently awaited the instructions of our coach. Hoping that what I had done outside was just a fluke, I mustered up all my courage and began performing the skills she was asking of. After about 6 turf burns, 10 wipe outs, 3 pulled muscles and a whole lot of tears, I had persevered through day one. Surrounded by my fellow rookies all laced with fear and pain, we began icing our bodies and preparing for the campus run in 105 degree weather. Here at TCU, the cheerleaders have to compete for their spots on the field each week. We were overwhelmed by the beautiful, talented veterans making each skill look absolutely effortless. It was a week I will never forget. With exhausted bodies, 9-hour cheerleading workouts, and routines we struggled to remember, we had embarked on the week that would make the whole season worth it. Today, we laugh about the wipeouts, the tears, and the excessive confusion, but during that week we had no idea what was possibly going to get us through or whether we would even be on the team after the week was over. It was perseverance. As if this week wasn’t hard enough to handle as is, it was the first week we were meeting our new teammates, living with our roommates, operating the campus, and it was also rush week for sororities. We would wake up at 5 am., go through sorority recruitment, and have 9 hours of cheerleading on top of it all for an entire week straight. Immune systems began to shut down, muscles gave out, and injuries and past surgeries became fully re-aggravated. It was not out of the ordinary for someone to burst into tears out of pure sleep deprivation. Two summers ago, I began suffering extreme shooting pains in my left food. I had waited months to have it looked at, as I was weeks away from competing for Team USA in the cheerleading world championships. Upon my arrival back to Texas after the Worlds, I decided I would have my foot checked out. They had diagnosed me with a tumor, but mom asked that the doctors tell me it was a bone spur as to not scare me. They did just that, but the surgeons had instructed that I not tumble before the surgery to prevent inflaming the tendons. I decided otherwise. Just three days before the surgery, I was tumbling and snapped a ligament in my other ankle. Therefore, I ended up having surgery on both of my ankles on the same day. During the surgery, the doctor found 3 additional ligaments that had snapped, and my ankle joint had actually fallen open during the procedure. As my mom sat outside frantically wondering why I had been in surgery four hours longer than expected, she began to realize that this process was not going to be a quick fix. This had me wheelchair bound for quite some time. I had just transferred to a new school, and the timing was just a mess. I had wondered why the surgery had to be so urgent, but it all made when they informed me of my tumor. It was not until after the tumor was removed that I had been told the truth. As scary as it was to find out, I think it was one of the most incredible parenting decisions my mom has ever made to wait until after the tumor was gone to explain it to me. I am so thankful for that. Without removing the tumor, the doctors could not detect it for cancer. After being told about the tumor and remaining bed bound for what seemed like eons, I was told that I would not be able to try out for college cheer. This had been my dream for as long as I can remember, but thankfully my physical therapist saw the light that my surgeons seemingly did not. After hours of exercises, ultrasound therapy and prayers, I was ready for tryouts. Looking back on all of this today, I realize how vital it is to persevere. Without perseverance, I would not have been motivated to keep pushing when the pain was excruciating, I would not have been able to tryout, and I would not have made it through work week and the football season that followed. When work-week had concluded and it was time to announce the first field team of the 2013 football season, I awaited patiently as my coach read the names from the list: Canon Charanza. I had officially done it. Despite all of the people that said it wouldn’t be possible, I had made field for my first college football game at Cowboys Stadium. Go frogs, and persevere on.