Back in the day.

 

Me, competing with the Legend Lady

Jags Small Juniors at Nationals in 2003.

Back in the day when I was a cheerleader, I used to flip, fly, tumble and stunt for fun in my spare time. In these days, I travelled a lot from the Miami area to all around the South for competitions. Since home was so far south, it was often necessary to fly to our competition destinations. Having flown a lot, I'm pretty much a pro. I'm good with turbulence, and even enjoy it, I know what types of things are easily accessible during the flight for entertainment, and I'm small, so I keep to myself. With that said, read on.

It happened Valentine's Day weekend in 2004. My mom, grandma and I were flying home from a competition in Dallas (where we won, by the way), and it was nearly 1AM on a Monday morning.

All competitions were extraordinarily exhausting. We'd arrive at the hotel or venue on Friday night, practice in the parking lots until 11 pm or midnight, go to our rooms and have to do our hair, then sleep for a little while. We usually had to get up around 5 so we could eat, practice, get to the competition venue and check-in, then sit around and try to sleep on the concrete floors using our bags as pillows for a while, and have practices throughout the day outside (regardless of weather). We also were required to be front-and-center when any of our gym's teams were competing. Then when there was about an hour before our floor time, we'd start making our way to the warm-up areas. Practice the routine full-out twice with the music, then work individually on stunts, tumbling, or what have you until it was our turn to wait in the Pit. We waited and waited, stomachs churning. Some girls were super hyped up at this point. I was the exact opposite. I would always stand quietly, composed, going through each and every motion, stunt, tumble, and jump in my head. Then we'd compete- 2:15 minutes of extreme athleticism. Then we do it again the next day for finals.

Anyways, back to the story- we hit a patch of turbulence, and, being the expert passenger I am, it didn't phase me. But then- the pilot came on overhead and said "Please pause for a short prayer."

Like any reasonable human being, I start bawling. Like an absolute baby. The water-works. Think of the biggest fountain you can- I was watering up more than that. I put my head down on the tray table and cried. Just thought about everything and everyone I loved and said my goodbyes.

About an hour later, still crying uncontrollably, we landed in Fort Lauderdale. Finally- only after watching me cry my eyes out and bawl for over an hour, my grandma finally asks me what happened and why I started crying, and I yelled "WHY WEREN'T YOU?!" She was surprised by my answer and kind of backed off for a minute.

After getting off the plane and regrouping myself, my mom asked me again, why I was suddenly crying. So finally, I said, "In the middle of the turbulence, the pilot said, 'Please pause for a short prayer.'"

My mom and grandma laughed at me. For a pretty long time. I was quickly becoming even less enthused than I started. 

Once they caught their breath they said, "The pilot said,

"Please sit for rough air.'"

This entire story to say that the turbulence on our flight from Nashville to DC last Wednesday was worse.

DC pictures and trip details coming soon!

 

Bonus photo. This is me competing with my

high school varsity competition team in Orlando

my freshman year of high school in 2003.

We placed second.