cheer and cheer
i never wouldve thought id be a lifetime watcher. seriously, lifetime is like the we channel. the programming is definitely based around women but instead of uplifting shows, they play tv movies about every single horrible thing that can happen to women: rape, adultery, kidnapping, murder. you know, the feel good stuff. i actually stopped on the lifetime channel this past thursday when i had a random morning session with jill r and a few hours to kill before i went back to work for the afternoon. lifetime captured me with a mini marathon of golden girls but made me a fan of the chan-nel with one of my new fave shows: cheerleader nation.
i know i know. i should stop trying to relive my "glory days" of high school cheerleading. yeah, this cheerleading squad did remind me a lot of my old team: same colors (red, black white... fight team fight. sorry, i had to.), same excitement and fun, same crappy football team to cheer for. only difference between the dunbar cheerleaders and the shs cheerleaders (at least circa '94 - '98): dunbar cheerleaders are kickass and win national championships whereas the only competition we won was when we threw georgias head into a chandelier. long story but all is true.
ok, so i have a tendency to watch shows about high schoolers (laguna beach, degrassi, old school 90210) but a lot can be learned through watching adolescents living their lives, whether its a scripted show or reality programming. watching cheerleader nation definitely brought up a lot of emotions and made me realize that yeah, my life can be crappy at times but there are others who live harder lives and still turn out a-ok.
my fave character so far is kaitlin. senior captain with a crazy mom. kaitlin injured her finger in the first ep and her doctors told her to stay off her hand for a month. coach was ok with the news and told her to just get better. her mom was a different story. she wanted kaitlin to still practice and perform. its her last year as a dunbar cheerleader and she doesnt want to her to miss out on her last opportunities. psy-cho! cheerleading trumps health? now thats just crazy. i love kaitlin because she has a functioning brain and knows her mothers thinking is warped. hmmm, does she go to jill r too?
scenes from the next ep shows one of the cheerleaders, ayrica, in tears after the regional competition. tears werent caused by a bad performance but from the lack of her parents presence. ayrica has a 4.2 gpa, helps her parents raise her 3 young sisters (ages 7, 5, and 1) and is one of the strongest cheerleaders on a national championship winning squad. i know how it feels to work hard and have no one show up to bask in the post work glory with you. appreciate what youve accomplished. sometimes parents suck and are capable of disappointing us.
watching the show really made me miss cheerleading. i didnt just join the squad so i could wear our cute uniforms to school on game days. i really enjoyed the sport. hell, i even went to a 3 day cheer camp with only 4 other team members (yeah, our cheerleaders were really dedicated). i miss the cheering, dancing, the stunts (i was a base of course), and tumbling. i miss the fun stuff that came with being a cheerleader (and no, we didnt automatically date/make out with the football players but if we did, i wouldve had dibs on #33. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm), like decorating the boys locker room for homecoming, painting our names on windows for spirit week, riding around in the motorcade, and toilet papering some "quality" houses. i miss that i had something to miss. the last football game, the last basketball game, last practice.
high school is such a weird and surreal time. every tiny problem seems like the biggest dilemma of your life. each day seems to go by so slowly yet the time just flies right by you. you think you will remember every little detail but as time passes, it all just becomes one big blur. i always get teary eyed when i watch high school graduations. it is such a life changing experience even though it is such a common occurence. you cant wait to leave and start a brand new exciting life but at the same time, it seems impossible to let go. maybe thats why i only have the fondest memories and feelings when it comes to cheerleading. it was the one thing that made letting go of my high school days hard. everything else just made me wanna run away and forget it all.
special mention:
while watching maureens protest from rent (the movie)
jo: is this how it is in the play too?
me: i dont remember.
jo: how could you not remember, its the weirdest f-in part of the movie?
constant quote of the week and probably next 3 weeks
vacation and vacation
i know i know. i should stop trying to relive my "glory days" of high school cheerleading. yeah, this cheerleading squad did remind me a lot of my old team: same colors (red, black white... fight team fight. sorry, i had to.), same excitement and fun, same crappy football team to cheer for. only difference between the dunbar cheerleaders and the shs cheerleaders (at least circa '94 - '98): dunbar cheerleaders are kickass and win national championships whereas the only competition we won was when we threw georgias head into a chandelier. long story but all is true.
ok, so i have a tendency to watch shows about high schoolers (laguna beach, degrassi, old school 90210) but a lot can be learned through watching adolescents living their lives, whether its a scripted show or reality programming. watching cheerleader nation definitely brought up a lot of emotions and made me realize that yeah, my life can be crappy at times but there are others who live harder lives and still turn out a-ok.
my fave character so far is kaitlin. senior captain with a crazy mom. kaitlin injured her finger in the first ep and her doctors told her to stay off her hand for a month. coach was ok with the news and told her to just get better. her mom was a different story. she wanted kaitlin to still practice and perform. its her last year as a dunbar cheerleader and she doesnt want to her to miss out on her last opportunities. psy-cho! cheerleading trumps health? now thats just crazy. i love kaitlin because she has a functioning brain and knows her mothers thinking is warped. hmmm, does she go to jill r too?
scenes from the next ep shows one of the cheerleaders, ayrica, in tears after the regional competition. tears werent caused by a bad performance but from the lack of her parents presence. ayrica has a 4.2 gpa, helps her parents raise her 3 young sisters (ages 7, 5, and 1) and is one of the strongest cheerleaders on a national championship winning squad. i know how it feels to work hard and have no one show up to bask in the post work glory with you. appreciate what youve accomplished. sometimes parents suck and are capable of disappointing us.
watching the show really made me miss cheerleading. i didnt just join the squad so i could wear our cute uniforms to school on game days. i really enjoyed the sport. hell, i even went to a 3 day cheer camp with only 4 other team members (yeah, our cheerleaders were really dedicated). i miss the cheering, dancing, the stunts (i was a base of course), and tumbling. i miss the fun stuff that came with being a cheerleader (and no, we didnt automatically date/make out with the football players but if we did, i wouldve had dibs on #33. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm), like decorating the boys locker room for homecoming, painting our names on windows for spirit week, riding around in the motorcade, and toilet papering some "quality" houses. i miss that i had something to miss. the last football game, the last basketball game, last practice.
high school is such a weird and surreal time. every tiny problem seems like the biggest dilemma of your life. each day seems to go by so slowly yet the time just flies right by you. you think you will remember every little detail but as time passes, it all just becomes one big blur. i always get teary eyed when i watch high school graduations. it is such a life changing experience even though it is such a common occurence. you cant wait to leave and start a brand new exciting life but at the same time, it seems impossible to let go. maybe thats why i only have the fondest memories and feelings when it comes to cheerleading. it was the one thing that made letting go of my high school days hard. everything else just made me wanna run away and forget it all.
special mention:
while watching maureens protest from rent (the movie)
jo: is this how it is in the play too?
me: i dont remember.
jo: how could you not remember, its the weirdest f-in part of the movie?
constant quote of the week and probably next 3 weeks
vacation and vacation
posted by MickeyPsHo at 10:42 PM
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