Bittersweet endings

After 6 years of All Star Cheerleading, Cheerleader Girl and I found out today that her all star gym will no longer offer a senior team. Due to lower sign ups this past year, partly because of the current state of our economy I am sure, the owner/director felt it was in the best interest to combine the junior and senior teams. What this means to us is there is no team for which CG meets the age requirements. As a result, there will be no more all star cheering for her. In the long run, this will be a good thing for our family, since cheerleading is an expensive and extremely time consuming sport. However, it was quite a shock to get the news. It would have been CG’s last year of all star cheerleading, and to be informed that LAST year was the end of the road, is disappointing. Had we known that her last competition would have been the end, we would have celebrated it as, the end. As it turned out it was more like “Good Job girls, see you next year.” Now, there will be nothing. Sure there are other gyms in the area, but when you have been with the same program for 6 years, it just wouldn’t be the same. The positive spin on it, is that she will be able to start her senior year with one less burden. She will still cheer for her high school for both competition and for sideline, but will have much more time on her hands, and we will have much more money in our pockets. I will miss those cheer weekends, where it was just she and I together at competitions, but I am glad we had the times together.

As time passes on, I realize this is only the first of many “endings” to come.