Lessons Learned

This fall cheerleading season has been one of learning for Abby (and more truthfully, for myself). This year she cheered for the middle school program for the high school that she will attend. We were thrilled when she made both the sideline and the competition squad her first year. And then she attended the camps and went to a 6th grade cheer get together and came home crying.

And this Mama's heart hurt. It's hard watching them start to make their way in this world. To trust that the lessons you have taught them will serve them in good stead. To wonder if perhaps you should have taught them a little bit more about being mean (not really, but sort of).

Abby wasn't perfect and she wasn't blameless but she also wasn't prepared for mean girls. Very few of the girls on her squad came from her middle school The majority go to another middle school and just were not all that kind. I am proud of her though. She found her friends on the squad and made her way and went on to have a wonderful season.

The year ended with the cheer banquet. I honestly thought that we had stepped into the wrong banquet when I looked around and realized what the other girls were wearing. It seemed that everyone was in strapless, short gowns which while not only inappropriate from my viewpoint would have looked ridiculous on my girl who still looks like a little girl and not a teenager. She was in a beautiful red dress that made her look so pretty and when she looked in the mirror at home she was pleased with what she saw. And then we got there and I saw her confidence and her pride in how she looked begin to slip.

She didn't want to take her coat off and in that moment I felt badly for her. I knew she didn't want to be different and while I could have offered all kinds of platitudes, I didn't. I simply offered to take her home if she wasn't comfortable. She said, "no" but didn't leave my side. That is until her friends found her and coaxed her away and before long she was laughing and smiling again and being herself.

We talked on the way home and while she may choose to do sideline cheer in the fall, she has decided that she doesn't want to do competition again.

I almost can't stand to watch her grow up. To watch my baby girl disappear into a poised young lady but at the same time I can 't help but stand in awe of the person that she is becoming.

Abby and friends at the 2011 Allatoona Cheer Banquet.