suck it the f*** up

So i’m thinking I spoke too soon about how well Monday night’s cheerleading practice went. just a warning, there’s about to be more cussing in this rant than I’ve used in writing or aloud in the last two months.

Tonight was pure hell.

We started off by running sprints up and down the length of the gym. 36 sprints from one end of the gym to another. By the end of it, I literally couldn’t breathe. I dunno if maybe I have a mild form of asthma or something, but this happens to me a lot–too much physical activity in too short a period of time, and I can’t breathe. But ya know what? I sucked it up. I got a drink of water, tried taking deep breaths, put my head between my knees, and I got back up, and went on with practice.

We stretched, doing splits. Somebody slid out of the split too soon, we held it longer.

We drilled dances and cheers over and over and over again. Somebody missed a motion. More sprints. We had to “spirit” all the way around the perimeter of the gym. Somebody wasn’t spirited enough. More sprints. We did stunts, that were supposed to be synchronized. Somebody didn’t get up in time. We did push-ups. But you know what? that wasn’t even the worst part. Shit like that energizes me. I’m still wound up from it, almost two hours later. No, the worst part was how the people on the squad were dealing with it.

Throughout the entire practice, we’ve had at least two people injured and one sick (like literally throwing up sick). Now each of these three people approached the shitty practice in a completely different way. The one girl, who has a torn bicep, practiced everything with us, ran with us, even stunted with us, though she’s technically not supposed to. The girl who was sick, also consistently practiced, running to the bathroom to throw up when she felt the urge.

The third girl, who had a sprained wrist (with possible ligament damage), didn’t even run. She claimed she was under doctors orders not to do anything. Umm hello? last time I checked, you didn’t need your wrist in order to sprint. Not to mention the fact that on monday you were throwing basket tosses with that wrist, and as of monday you still thought it was a hairline fracture. Get the fuck over yourself and suck it the fuck up bitch.

And quit the fucking whining about our coach. Yes, he was hard on us tonight, but goddammit that’s what coaches are supposed to fucking do!!! how the fuck else are you supposed to get any better? Your coach is not supposed to be your friend. He’s not there to baby you. He’s there to push and push and push and make you fucking better. And when you throw your hands in the air and say “oh I can’t do that.” and essentially give up, it fucking pisses him off, and it pisses me off too. He is trying and trying all he can to make us the best squad we can be, and you aren’t giving the equal effort back in order to try to be the best you can be.

Would you be complaining like this if it was a “real” sport? i choose my words very grudgingly there because to me, if it’s done right cheerleading is a real sport. I take it personally when you say that you’re not at hopkins for cheerleading.

I completely understand that we are not at Hopkins for cheerleading. We are not a varsity sport, we are a club sport. But regardless, it is still a commitment. If you played varsity lacrosse, would you skip out on practice because you still had homework to do??? or let’s take it to the real world. You can’t call out from work because your boyfriend dumped you. (yes, one of the girls skipped practice on monday because her boyfriend dumped her). When you make a commitment, you have to stick by it. You may not be at hopkins to cheer, but once you got to hopkins, you made the decision to make a commitment to cheerleading.

So goddammit, quit your fucking whining. Do you have any idea how much worse it could be? This is nothing compared to what my freshman year on the squad was like. Suck it the fuck up. You have it easy.

And if you can’t take the heat, get out of the fucking kitchen.