“Cheerleaders. We don’t do cheerleading because it’s fun. Ask any of us, most of us will tell you we hate it, but our lives wouldn’t be anything without it. It’s what we live for. We live for the long plane rides, the parties, but also the undefined amount of braces, tape, and the unexplainable need for six inhalers. We live for the way we have stupid little rituals that are silly but always manage to put us into first place. We live for marking the entire routine countless times. We live for the sound effects, old songs remixed, and snotty voice-overs. We live for walking past another team and seeing the fear in their eyes. We live for knowing we are the best in the nation. We live for the competition, the friends, the practices, the memories, the pain, and the strangers who became a famil…y. Even with the rush of nervousness, we live for it… It’s who we are”