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Hope you guys are all having a good day. Funny story. I actually just recorded about 15 minutes of this episode and I just didn't like it and I've never done that with a podcast before. I've never like restarted, but. I did today, so that's kind of odd, but anyway, let's get right into it. Today we're going to be talking about my past with cheerleading. I got a lot of requests for this. Weirdly enough, I did not expect to get a lot of requests for this topic because I just didn't think that people would be interested in it. But. Apparently you guys want to hear me talk about cheer, and I think it's probably because the cheer documentary on Netflix just came out and a lot of people are talking about cheer. It's kind of like the hot thing right now, which is crazy to me because when I did cheer, it was not cool to be a cheerleader. It's funny to see, and I love how it's become more respected in the world. I know a lot of people, you know, used to debate whether or not it was a sport and all that. And I think after this documentary, a lot of people think it is a sport and have a lot of respect for it that they didn't before so. That's been really amazing to see as an ex cheerleader. And, you know, you guys want to hear about it. I have some pretty cool stories in my OK, cool is a gross word to use. I said that and I cringed immediately. I have some pretty fascinating stories about cheer and just like, my journey with it that I think would be maybe kind of interesting. Hopefully we'll see. You can be the judge. You can let me know. So. Let's just chop right into it. Umm. Before I start, I want to explain cheerleading a tiny bit just for you guys who don't maybe understand how it's kind of all laid out. So there's a few different types of cheer. There's school chair, which is basically run through your school and you usually cheer for football games, basketball games, all of that and. It's basically a school sport, so it's through your school and the difficulty level is usually a lot lower. It's more dance based rather than like. Tumbling and stunt based. This is just stereotypically some school teams. Are really good and like are really. Like it's more of a serious thing, but I know for some schools it's also not, and that's been more of my experience, but. That is school chair. And then you have competitive cheer, which is. It's a private owned kind of gym. It's basically doing a club sport, so it's like not run through a school. It's like run on its own and you're never cheering for a sport, you're just cheering as a performance, basically. Think of it as like competitive dance, except for a little bit different. You basically there's a bunch of different teams based on skill level and age. Levels one through 6, although 5 in Level 5 and six are kind of similar skill level. It's just slight differences, but I won't get into that today. And then there's a bunch of different age groups and you basically compete at competitions against other teams in the same division as you and you try to win. And there's, you know, of course some competitions that are the ideal ones that you want to go to, like NCA, which is a competition in Dallas, TX. That's like the biggest cheer competition in the US every team goes. Or at least all of the like, you know, good teams go and then you have worlds, which is only for level 5 and six. That's basically like the quote UN quote Olympics of cheerleading. And then you have a summit, which is like. Basically worlds, but for the lower level teams. OK, so that's cheerleading. That's basically the layout. And then of course there's college cheer 2, but I'm not going to get into that today because I don't. I don't have any experience with that. So anywho, let's just hop right the **** into it. So. I started cheer because my cousin was a cheerleader. And she. Join the gym in our town and she started kind of teaching me some cheer moves or whatever and I really liked it. I actually thought it was really fun and so I ended up joining the same gym as her. And the first team I got on was a youth level one, OK? And let me tell you, we were ******* awful. ******* awful. And actually most of the teams at my first gym that I went to were not very good just because. You know, we were a small town and not a lot of cheerleaders went there. We we didn't have a lot of members at our cheered gym and because of that there was like less. Like the teams? Weren't as strong I think, because we didn't have as many high level athletes at the gym, right? So like we tried to have a level three team but the level three team which Level 3 is like doing. Round of texts, which is like a round off and then a back flip for those who don't do cheer, don't know anything about that and you know that was basically the main skill. That kind of differentiated Level 3 from the other levels is that you were allowed to flip? So. Like our level three team wasn't very good because we only had probably 7 people that could actually do those tumbling skills. So we never ended up winning very often, but I wasn't on that team until my third year at that gym, so we'll get into that later. Basically. Our gym was not very good, but there was a lot of drama, you know? Mainly because we lost a lot, but also because there was a lot of competitiveness between the athletes, right? I Remember Me and this girl somehow built a feud. I don't really know what happened. I think her mom. Got kind of jealous in a sense of me because of like, I think I was put in a better spot than her daughter. In the routine, and I was more front and center, I think, than her daughter. And I think her mom got mad. And then basically a feud started between me and this girl and it was like her mom was crazy. She would sit in and stare at me during practices. And. Was like micromanaging where I was in the routine versus her daughter and it was this whole crazy dance mom ****. And my mom and I are very. Path of least resistance, OK, we just want to have fun. So that was a definitely an upsetting experience, but it definitely put a fire under my *** because me and this girl have had this feud and so we wanted to be better than each other. Like? We both wanted to be the best because. She started to get really good and then I was like, oh ****. That's my like enemy. I need to get better than her now. So put a fire under my *** and I ended up actually getting really ******* good. Probably because of her, to be honest. And we both ended up getting really good. For that matter, and. The drama with that was terrifying. I remember one time her mom called my mom and she said that I was bullying her daughter and I was like, dude. I've never spoken a word to your daughter since we've started our feud, and I don't like confrontation, so that's just not true. And then they tried to get me kicked out of the gym and it was just this whole drama. Mind you, at this time I'm like 11 and I don't know what was going on. Also, just drama with the coaches. They were really strict and rude for no reason. Love to scream at us for no reason, mainly just for a power trip. It was funny to me because we would get screamed at all the time, but we weren't even good, so I don't really know where the screaming got anyone. But it kind of got to a point after about three years. Of being at this smaller gym we just lost all the time. We were constantly losing. And my skill set kind of surpassed the level of this gym. There was not really a team that fit me well, that was like challenging me at all. I kind of reached the peak of potential for that gym. And so my friend and I decided that we were going to go to this gym called California All-Stars, which was basically one of the best gyms. In the world, I think it was top three. Uh, they were famous within the tier community for being one of the best. They were super well known. Every time you go to a cheer competition, if you were against California All Stars, you would just accept the fact that you were losing. And I wanted that **** dude. I wanted that so bad because I had worked so hard for the past three years, you know, to get the skills that I had and like, whatever. And I was like, and so had my friend. And so we were like, **** it, we're going to convince our parents and we're going to go. To California All Stars. The gym was an hour and a half away. And we would have to be there three days a week. But somehow our parents let us go and we were so relieved to get out of our old gym. It just felt like such drama, unnecessary drama and like, it was like we were actually passionate about this in a different, larger way, and we were like, let's just get the **** out of here. So. We went to California, All Stars and. It was crazy. Number one, you feel dope as **** because you're at one of the best gyms in the country. But that doesn't mean that it's easy, because I was used to practices that didn't really kick my ***. Well, when I went to California, All Stars, all of that changed these practices. They were two hours. Two to three times a week, which doesn't seem like a lot. But. We would get our ***** kicked, OK? The conditioning. Was insane. Like, girls would be throwing up, people would be crying. People would be like eating **** because they were too fatigued. They couldn't do it anymore. Like we'd be like falling on our faces and **** because we were so tired. The Flyers, which are the people that would get thrown up in the air, which was me, would get stretched until we cried. When it was time for competitions like bigger competitions, we would have extra practices and we would be in the gym like five days a week, six days a week. Right before competition. We would all be exhausted. We'd all have bruises all over our bodies because, you know, we're throwing each other up in the air and then catching each other. It's inevitable that you're going to get bruises. We would. Our bodies would be like constantly sore. Our joints would always be swollen. It was insane. But I ******* loved it. It was it was like my I wouldn't want to do anything else. It was like. It. I was so ******* passionate about it. It was like I was doing homework on the way to practice, going to practice for two hours, coming home, icing my joints, doing more homework, going to bed at 2, waking up, doing it all over again. And like I somehow. Like, never got sick of it and it was just like it was my *******. It was the love of my life. Like I was obsessed with it. And when we go to competitions it only got better because we were all so conditioned and we were all in such good ******* shape from getting our *** kicked all the time that when we go to competitions it was like. Seamless and most of the time we would win until we go to the really big competitions like the ones I mentioned earlier like NCA and. All that where we would get our *** kicked sometimes because there were other gyms from other states that were on the same wave as us and they were getting their ***** kicked as well. But at the more local competitions it was just like. Easy, and it was fun and performing was like the best. Performing was the best ******* feeling. Of my life, like, I've never felt a feeling like that. It's like you're so nervous and then you black out and you perform and then you get off stage and it's just like the most magical ******* feeling. And so I was addicted to it and I could not stop so. I didn't stop for ******* six years or whatever, but there was sacrifices that you made. You know what I mean? Like. I when I wasn't at practice I was supposed to run 2 miles twice a week and. Post my proof that I was stretching on the team Facebook page. Like, I had to show my flexibility, basically, and show that I was stretching at home. So that took up three days of the week when I wasn't at practice two to three times a week. And you know, on top of that I was doing school and. Trying to like have a social life and so. I didn't really end up having a social life. My social life just ended up being cheered, to be honest. Because. I just didn't have time for anything else and so I started California All Stars when I was in 8th grade and then my second year in California All Stars. I was in high school and. When I got to high school, things started to get crazy. Clothes are one of the many ways that we express ourselves and we're constantly switching up our wardrobes. To reflect our interests and styles. But one thing that is a little bit more difficult to switch up is our glasses. Until now, because now with pair eyewear. You can have a different frame every day, OK? With pair eyewear, you start with a chic pair of glasses, right? That look great just by themselves, but they have a special secret. Which is that they have at little. Magnet inside so you can snap on. A cool frame on top of your existing glasses. I got the crystal clear Reese's base frame which is just a really chic pair of all clear glasses. The frame is clear, obviously, the lenses are clear and I got a tortoise frame and a Plaid frame so I can now it. Basically I have 3 pairs of reading glasses now. There are so many options, iconic base shapes and then all sort of frames to go on top retro classic neon sparkle. You'll definitely find your vibe. I also love. Buying from a brand that really, really cares and pair provides glasses to a child in need for every pair that you buy. Get glasses as ever, changing as you are with pear. Go to pair eyewear com Emma for 15% off your first purchase. That's 15% off at PAIR eyewear.com/emma. When I got to high school, shake got crazier. Just because I was like trying to balance being a high school student and doing cheer and it was just like. It was crazy. Not to mention. My second year in California All-Stars, which was the year that I did it freshman year of high school. I remember I tried out and I wanted to level up from Level 3 to level 4, but during tryouts I ate **** and I didn't land my skill. So I went home and I cried for three days and I ended up making Level 3 again and I was pretty ******* upset. So that kind of bothered me and that kind of bothered me the whole season. Because I just wanted to level up so bad and I didn't, so it was ******* heartbreaking for me. And. That kind of bummed me out the whole season, but then on top of that, it was my first year of high school, and I'm like, figuring that all out. So it was tough, but I remember that year of cheer, which was actually my last year. Spoiler alert. I remember I had some, like, traumatizing experiences that I wanted to share #1I sprained my ankle so ******* badly we were basically doing this stunt. We're basically. It was a dismount from a stunt, so it's basically how you get out of the stunt, so to make it look presentable, it was basically where I would lay on my back. They would lift me up and I was laying on my back and then they would throw my legs over and I'd split them and then I'd land on the floor with my feet together so they would throw me over. So I basically do like a flip over my head and then land on my feet. And I remember one time. I just didn't have my footing right and I landed straight on my ankle with my whole body weight. I'm literally cringing right now just talking about it and I sprained my ankle so bad I. Couldn't breathe. For like probably 5 minutes I couldn't stand on it. I was like I had to drag myself off of the mat and I couldn't even cry because it hurt so bad. I was hyperventilating. It was the worst pain I've ever felt to this day, and I've broken bones. I don't even understand how something could be that painful. I thought that my ankle had snapped in half. It in fact had, and I just sprained it really bad. Or I think I tore a ligament. Maybe I don't remember, but. It was so bad and I remember I had to sit out for a little bit with my sprained ankle, but then. Even when it was still fully sprained and hurting, I went back to practice and I was practicing on my sprained ankle and it was ******* traumatizing. Another time I was really sick. I had a 104 fever at practice and I went anyway. And I asked if I could maybe participate a little bit less because, oh, I don't know, I had a 104 fever and if you guys have ever had a 104 fever, your body feels like it's £1000 and you can barely move. OK. They made me practice with a 104 fever and. I was sobbing the entire practice because I was in so much pain. And it was so uncomfortable, but I did it anyway. And all of these little things like that kind of started to set me off because it was getting to a point where. The team that I was on was not the team I wanted to be on. I did not level up. I was like going through these like. Tough mental and physical battles, right? Just to be on a team that I didn't really want to be on. I wanted to be on a different team, and so I was starting to get really uninspired. But at the same time, I'd created such strong bonds with everybody on the team and and with everybody at the gym and like, I was still passionate about the sport. It was just I was kind of discouraged at that moment. And on top of that. I wanted to start high school cheer. I was like, well, doing high school chair. Could either make me want to quit competitive cheer? Or it could just reinforce my love for competitive cheer. O. Let's do it. So I joined my high school team, UM, freshman year, and I joined late because I didn't expect myself to want to do it. I didn't think I'd even have time on my schedule to do it, and to be honest, I didn't. But I. Dated anyways, I tried out anyway, like two months late and I made the team obviously because I did cheer already. So I had all the skills level, like there was no way I wasn't going to make the team. School chair was. Not my thing. I hated cheering for games. I had to practice three times a week for high school cheer. While I was also practicing 2 to three times a week for competitive cheer. So it was like this. ******* weird. Like I was like doing both. And I like. Sometimes would have to skip high school practices to go to. Competitive cheer practices because. With competitive share, you can't miss a practice or else you literally get kicked off the team. Whereas with high school chair it was a little bit less like strict, so I would have to miss practices sometimes. Sometimes practices would like overlap where I'd have to like. You know, go to high school practice for like an hour and then drive all the way across town an hour and a half and then go to ******* my competitive cheer practice. It was a mess, OK, but I managed to make it work. And I hated high school cheer, though. I really hated it. I ******* hated it. I was like. I remember one time I got dropped pretty badly because I was a flyer from my high school team as well and we were trying this new stunt on a hard mat with no springs. And. They dropped me. Like bad, just onto my back. And. That was when I knew that I needed to stop doing high school cheer because. They ******* fully dropped me and it scared the **** out of me on a hard mat and I realized that. They are not. Like in competitive cheer, everybody's very trustworthy. Like, everybody knows what they're doing. It's very rare that you hurt yourself when you're stunting. I mean, it happens for sure, but like, there's a lot more. Training that goes into the stunts that we're doing and we're a lot more prepared, whereas with high school cheer we just weren't trained to be doing difficult stunts. So I got dropped and I was freaked out and I decided. I needed to pack off from school chair and I was like, I'm only going to do, you know, the easy stunts from now on. I don't want to. I'm not going to, I don't want to try crazy **** with this team, but I stayed on the team. And Fast forward, I end up having to miss a lot of practices around the time of NCAA, which was the big cheer competition. And so I was missing a bunch of high school practices and missing some games. When we had to cheer for games and. So. They kicked me off the team. They kicked me off the cheer team and I was mad about this because I was like. I mean, I was kind of relieved, but I was also kind of like, yo, I'm missing practices. To do cheer elsewhere and then when I come back. I know how to do everything still that you guys are learning. Like because I was doing cheer elsewhere. It wasn't like I was missing practice to do nothing. I was missing practice to do cheer and then I'd come back the next practice and get filled in in 5 minutes and it was fine. It was never an actual problem. I think the problem was that. I think the captains of the team. Were kind of just salty at me for some reason. I kind of got that vibe and I think that they just. Were like, they thought that I thought that I was better than everybody because I was doing cheer at a separate gym. But like, really, it was just like, I just was passionate about sharing, wanted to do both. But they were kind of like, no, like, you're being like, you know, ****** because you're not putting your full attention and love towards our team. But it was like I was showing up and doing my job for the high school team and and then some. So me being kicked off had to have just been. An ego issue in my opinion. So I was kicked off the high school cheer team and I just continued doing competitive cheer, OK? NCA comes around, we lose. We got six. I was heartbroken. And. I decided I'm gonna quit competitive cheer. I was like, **** this **** I'm done. I just. Couldn't do it anymore. I was so burnt out. I had been doing cheer for six years. And you know, I think the combination of doing high school cheer and competitive cheer just made me lose my mind, so I quit. And it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, because cheer became my whole entire life. For six years, I had no other thoughts. I had no other. Care in the world. That was all I thought about. That was all I cared about. You know, it took away my summers because I was doing cheer camp all summer and I had rigorous practices all summer. So it wasn't like I could go on vacation during the summer. I literally couldn't go on summer vacation because I was practicing all summer. You know, during the school year, there were like, I know a lot of kids had to Miss Prom because they had to go to cheer competitions like it was like that. And so I wanted my life back. So I did. I quit, and I got my life back and, you know? I already had gotten kicked off the high school team, so I basically had a free schedule, which was when I started doing cross country and track, which is a story for another day, but. You know, and I sucked at cross country and track. Oh my God. But the last cheer story I have is after I'd quit high school, or well, after I'd already quit competitive cheer and then got kicked off the high school team. The high school team had a performance and they were like, hey, one of our Flyers can't perform. Do you want to step in? And I was like, OK, so y'all ************* just kicked me off and now you want me back suddenly and randomly. OK, you know what? Sure. At that point I was kind of missing cheer a little bit because I had already been done for a few months. And so I agreed, and lo and behold, I practiced with them twice, perform with them, and during that performance I broke my hand because somebody was in the they basically we had to kind of reformulate the routine, if that makes sense. Like we had to kind of re reconfigure the routine and one of the girls forgot that we had changed something, so she walked right in front of me while I was tumbling. And my hand bent under itself and I broke. I broke the like bone right below my pinky finger knuckle. So if you feel that bone, it's just this straight bone. I broke right under there, kind of near the knuckle actually. And I broke it within the 1st 30 seconds of the performance and I didn't know what had happened. I thought maybe it was fine, so I performed on it. I had so much adrenaline that I just performed on top of my broken hand. I'm tumbling on it. I'm doing stunts on it on a hard mat, no springs. And I ******* did that ****. And I remember I get off the stage, if you will, or it was more of the mad because it wasn't really a stage. But I get off the mat and I looked down at my hand and my hand. This ******* bent like my. Hand like could fold over. In a way I'd never seen it do before. So I get off stage and I'm like, I think this is broken. And my mom was like, holy **** honey, we're taking you to the. Urgent care. And I was like, OK, so first I go and get myself some sushi. So my mom and I go and get sushi with this ******* broken hand that looks like limp and ****. I'm being dramatic. It was not that bad, but I mean, it was fully broken. You could see it, you know? But we went and got Sushi 1st and then we went to urgent care and we got the X-rays and whatever, and it was broken. And so then I was really done with cheer. Any chance of me going back and doing cheer again was I was like, no, that was what sealed the deal for me. I decided I never wanted to do cheer again. And. That was that. So that was the end of my cheer journey. We're talking about Macy's again. My favorite one stop shop in such a beloved friend to anything goes. Macy's is the best because it really has something for everyone in every occasion. Whether it's clothes, HomeGoods, cooking Ware, whatever it may be, Macy's has something for you in the spirit of everybody having their own individual Macy's shopping experience. They're making us feel like true VIP's for the next couple of weeks because Macy's VIP sale has arrived just in time to get everything you need to cozy up this fall. From September 23rd to October 3rd, get 30% off regular sale and clearance items plus. 15% off beauty. And again, outside of beauty, that's 30% off. Pretty much everything from clothing, shoes and handbags to home decor and appliances. It's happening at Macy's. You want to know what I'm going to get? I'm going to get scarves because I really want to have a scarf. I live in California. It's only cold for like 3 months here, and it's not even that cold. Like it never snows, but I need to be leaning into the winter. Entire this year, because last year I wasn't going hard enough. So I will be picking up a few things from Macy's if you need to get some stuff for fallcheckoutmacys.com, that's macys.com. You'll find what you need. I can guarantee you that. But I wanted to talk about kind of a funny element of cheer that, I don't know, I just think it was interesting. So when I was a cheerleader, there was this whole community within cheer. It was like its own kind of cult and community. Umm. And there were cheer liberties like celebrity cheer celebrities that everybody envied and wanted to be, and everybody would watch their teams perform just to see their favorite cheerlebrity. It was like a full we literally called it cheerlebrity. How ******* cringy is that? But. You know there was like, and you know, when you go to the big competitions, those teams would be there and you would watch your favorite teams perform and it was like ******* magical. And I know one of the girls that was one of my favorites. She's actually in the cheer show on Netflix. Her name is Gabby Butler, and I remember I was obsessed with Gabby Butler. Remember I took a photo with her at a cheer competition and still have that photo to this day. It's ******* iconic. Yeah, I was like her biggest ******* fan. I wanted to be her and. So, you know, after they would perform, we would take photos with our favorite cheerlebrity. And I don't know. And some of them, you know, had YouTube channels. I know there was one girl that had a YouTube channel that was a cheerleader. And I was obsessed with her and I one time saw her dad at a cheer competition and I went up to her dad and I was like, I love your daughter. Like, I watched her videos and it was, it's just so funny. It was like it was so funny how this community was like, so weirdly tighten it. But also like, there was still that, like. Like idolizing. It was so interesting. So anyway, I loved it, though I loved every minute. And I wish I could go back. And that's my cheer story. I hope that that was even relatively. Interesting. I don't know how it could be to be honest. Sorry, I needed a sip of coffee. I don't know if that was interesting, but that was my cheer journey. I can still tumble to this day. But I'm not flexible anymore. Oh my God, I lost all of my flexibility and I'm so sad because it would just be so fun if I could just *******. Do the splits and ****. I probably missed some stories that like some cheer stories, but. I feel like that's all I have for right now. That's all I can remember. But let's answer some cheer questions. First question, were your teammates Nice or were they stereotypically mean, like what you see in the movies? Definitely not stereotypically mean. Like, I actually, I think majority of the girls were really nice and cool, and I got along with 90% of them. But of course, in any group of teen girls, there's going to be some conflict. So there was definitely a few girls that were mean, but I don't think that that had anything to do with cheerleading and everything to do with the fact that we were all teen girls and some teen girls are just ******* rude. Next question, how many friends did you make from it? I actually made so many friends. Like I would say, 50% of my friends were cheer friends back in the day. I don't really. Speak to many of them now. But I mean, we're all on good terms. If I reached out to them, it would probably be fun. But you know, they're all in college, living their life and **** so. Yeah, but I definitely had some, like homies that I like, kept around for a while from cheer, which was really special. Next question, did cheer teach you any important life lessons? I would say yes. It made me realize like the importance of showing up on time and showing up. Like when you're asked because you know, and it made me good at it too, because like, you know, we had these practices and you you couldn't be late, you know, or else you get kicked off or with California All-Stars anyways. You had to be on time. Like, everything was this. The rules were so strict, right. So it kind of ingrained in me to be on time and to show up ready. And it also taught me how to work with the team in a way that I had never done before and like how, you know, working together rather than against each other. It's so valuable when you're on a team. It's like supporting one another and being uplifting to one another creates like team morale that's unstoppable. But the second that you start turning on each other and resenting each other, if somebody struggling is the 2nd that your team is going to fail. And I think that that was a really. Great metaphor for me for life. But also just like the beauty of working together and me being somebody who's quite a control freak, having to put my control freak side aside and. Kind of work together with a team like really. Made me put myself second in a sense for once and like. Made me realize that, like, we have to all be in this together and **** we're all, you know? Next question, was there a lot of pressure to look a certain way 1000%? Oh my God, I hate to ******* bring up this topic again because it just sucks and it's not fun to talk about, but I do think that cheer kind of has is this is slightly responsible for a decent amount of my. Body image issues that I've had. Just because I was a flyer, which was somebody that needed to be lifted up and you know. As a flyer you want to stay light, so. I became kind of obsessed with my nutrition at a very young age. I was like. Counting my calories and like doing research on foods that were good for you, which I think actually the, you know me educating myself at a young age on fitness and nutrition and like how to stay in shape was good. But I think that it got to a point where it was obsessive and I think that that was really negative for me, but I think. I did learn a lot about, you know, healthy eating and how it in whatever, which is actually really valuable. So it was like this double edged sword with that. But because then I'd also was like, you know, half of these girls, especially the cheer libraries that I mentioned earlier are ******* shredded like 6 pack, huge muscles like whatever. And I wanted to look like that too because that's what was cool in the cheer community and I never really got there. But just because I don't think I'm built like that, I don't think I can get like that. But you know, I was like doing 300 sit-ups every night so that I could look like that and I never fully got there, but. Definitely. And also even at the cheer competitions, you know your hair, your makeup, you know needs to be ******* on point or else you're getting judged by other teams. You know you have to have a spray tan or else you aren't fitting in like is. Everybody needs to be tan for some reason, so I'd get spray tans for every single competition. Or do. You know, loving tan or whatever. There is definitely a huge focus on the appearance. Mainly being shredded tan and having fire hair and makeup was was the focus. And I mean, I actually kind of liked getting dolled up like that. I'm like, God, my ******* freshman yourself. I remember I would get so excited for cheer competitions because it would get me, give me an excuse to get super dressed up and I thought that I looked so ******* good and I'd send snapchats to boys. So that is that. And they probably were like at the time being a cheerleader, wasn't that? Well, whereas now it is. But it wasn't back then. So they probably were like, what the **** is? Why is she? Why does she look like she's going to a pageant? But I thought that I looked hot, so. Kind of a shame. Whatever. Somebody asked me what was my favorite move or trick. Probably a round off. Tuck was just my favorite because it was. It just became really easy for me, which is basically a round off where you do a cartwheel. But then at the end you put your feet together and you jump. It's very hard to explain. If you want to Google a round off tuck, feel free. So round off Tuck was my favorite. I also used to really like standing tucks, which is where you basically do a backflip just standing. Like you just don't even, you just stand there. And I got kind of good at those, but those were really hard. I wasn't as good at standing tumbling as I feel like my leg strength wasn't very good, whereas my like upper body strength was better than my leg strength, so I wasn't as good at like, doing ****. Just from standing, but I did like doing standing tugs. Somebody said please talk about the hair loss because of the tight as **** ponytails that damage your hair. I actually my hairline receded a little bit, it grew back but my hairline did recede from doing cheer and my hair was burnt because I used to dye it blonde. And like all the teasing, you do so much teasing basically with cheer hair, the bigger the better. So you wanted to tease it as big as you could, which is like backcombing and making your hair huge while also looking somehow clean at the same time. It was very weird, like you didn't want your hair to look like a rats nest, you wanted it to look like this beautiful bump of hair, right? But that teasing is super damaging. It would take 2 hours to come out every after every time we perform. It was a ******* mess. It was so difficult. And my hair was super damaged and only recently has it all grown out. Now all my cheer hair is gone finally after like three years. OK, so if I were to host a live radio show and I could play any music I wanted, I would honestly probably have the time of my Life OK, but I'll admit I would probably end up playing. Just sad music. I don't know what it is about me, but I love sad music, OK? And so I'd probably end up playing. A lot of sad music. Specifically for the people who are listening in the car by themselves. That want to shed a tear in a good way? Well now there is a place that I or you or anyone can host a live show. Amp is the platform that allows people to come together and create live, unfiltered radio shows with whatever music or content that they love. And this is like a real show where you can have people listening live and you can pick exactly which songs to play, and you can even have fans calling in to chat while you're on air. If I had a live show, I would definitely. Have people call in and ask me for dating advice honestly, so I think I'd have to do dating advice. You know what this actually sounds like the perfect radio show. Sad music combined with dating advice, because all of the shows on AMP are run by real people. You can tell that the playlists are authentic. A playlist generated automatically just sounds different than one that an individual is controlling based on their passions and tastes. And with 10s of millions of licensed songs to choose from, everyone will find the music that appeals to them. But it's not just music. You can have a talk show, or react to news, or riff on pop culture, and that's one of the best parts about being a podcast host. You can just riff. On whatever. Excites your mind on any given day. So download AMP today in the App Store that's a amp, or ask Alexa to play amp, somebody said. Do you think you would have done something with it if you didn't start YouTube and your gut didn't tell you it that it wasn't right for you? I don't think I actually would have because. After I broke my hand, I just was so over it and I and it was it was a combination of breaking my hand in and getting six at NCA with my team. I just was over it and also I was about to age out anyway, because basically you can only really do cheer competitively until you're a senior in high school. And I only had two years left and I was kind of like, I don't want to waste two years of my life, AKA the rest of my high school years, doing cheer when I'm just when I'm not even going to be on my dream team that I'd always wanted to be on. I was at my dream gym, but I wasn't at my on my dream team, so. I just ended up quitting, which is probably not necessarily the best, but I am glad I quit because now look at me. I found other passions, you know what I mean? And that wasn't my passion, that wasn't my long term passion and I found passion in. In other things as well after that, when it came to sports, because I did, I ended up doing track and I ended up doing hurdles for a season and I actually really loved doing hurdles and I would have never found that out if I wouldn't have quit here. So somebody said here, we don't have cheer in schools. So how would you describe the whole thing to someone who doesn't have a clue how it is? So I already kind of explained that a little bit in the beginning, but I will go into high school cheer a little bit more. Basically high school cheer. At least at my school. It's basically where. Our team was also a competition team, so actually my high school team would compete against other high schools. But it was really weird because we wouldn't do like a normal performance, we would. Do like a cheer. Like TIGER, we would do a cheer like that, perform that in front of judges, and then we'd do a short competitive, if you will, routine and compete. But besides that, we were mainly doing pep rallies. Like, you know, different rallies at school we were doing, we would cheer for football and basketball, which the football players and the basketball players hated us. They thought we were so ******* annoying. And I don't blame them because it's just loud. It's not fun. Like, they don't like it. Like they literally don't like it. Also, all the stereotypes about like, cheerleaders getting a bunch of dudes. Not true. I got no dudes from being a cheerleader at all. Dudes thought cheerleaders were annoying. The guys wanted to date the girls that like, played. Locker or like did track because like, they're, you know, they thought that was hot. So the cheerleaders kind of got no love. Also the cheerleaders at my school anyway, not popular. That was not how it worked. Like, it wasn't like. The popular girls did cheer. Mind you, I did go to all girls Catholic school and our brother school was an all boys Catholic school. So like we had a kind of different situation, but it wasn't like the normal stereotypical public high school cheerleader Jock situation. Like we just didn't have that. But but even when we were like around the guys that was from our brothers school, we still didn't get any love. So that was that. And somebody said, how do you feel about the rhinestone uniforms? The uniforms for cheer are so ******* insane. They're like. So glammed out and like, so extreme. But I ******* loved it. It's one of those things. You have to lean into it, right? It's like, you kind of know, it's a little bit corny, you know, it's a little bit weird. But like, you just have to immerse yourself in it and, like, enjoy it because it's fun to get glammed up like that. So I always loved it, to be honest. And like, the big bows and **** like, I I just let myself enjoy it. It's like you can think that it's kind of bizarre and weird, or you could just be like, this is what it is and I'm going to enjoy it. So that's kind of how I handled that. Umm. Last year question and then I'm just going to start talking about random ****. I have some other random **** I want to talk about. If you could turn back time, would you still enter cheer? Absolutely. Cheer was one of the best things I ever did in my life and it was, it has some of my favorite memories. And it just has such a warm. Feeling it, it makes me feel warm in my heart, even though I had some ****** experiences within it. Like I I still like love it like I love it I I like. I still watched cheer routines to this day sometimes. And and I miss it and I miss performing and I like it. It gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart. So that's cheer, baby. Oh my God, I literally just. Looked over at my night stand. I record these podcasts in my guest bedroom and there is a coffee sitting in here half finished from when I recorded last time, which was a week ago, so I should probably put that in the dishwasher anyways. Now let's talk. About other **** that's not share related. I've been doing the same **** since last week. I'm still playing Fortnite. Oh, but last night, let me tell you. Last night. I caved and I started watching Tiger King. Everybody's been talking about Tiger King, which is this new Netflix show, which is basically about these people that are ******* insane that like breed big cats, IE tigers, lions, etcetera. And everybody who's been talking about Tiger King, OK, and I normally don't like to watch shows that everybody's raving about because I always feel like I get disappointed. But for some reason, every time it's a Netflix documentary of some sort, I know I'm going to love it. So I ended up starting that last night because I could not fall asleep because my sleep schedule has been so ******. I've been going to bed at like 4:30 every night, probably because I'm on my phone. ******* idiot. But anyway, started watching Tiger King y'all. This ****** crazy. This **** is crazy. You guys need to watch this. It is so ******* good. It's just so good in the drama. Oh, it's beautiful. It's the drama is amazing. It's like, it's a combination. It's like funny because the characters in this, I mean, it's not characters. They're real people, but they, you know, they are such characters. The people on this show are such characters. And on top of that, it's like such a funny, like weird community of people that are all so bizarre and it's just. So fun. Like, it's so fun. And then, you know, but within that, there's mixed in some murder mysteries. It's like and like some, like, you know, weird cult ****. It's like crazy. Everything I'm into in a show, everything I'm into in a show. A little bit of murder mystery, a little bit of cult drama. Little bit of eccentric Ness and a little bit of kind of weird ******* Florida *** ****. Like just some weird **** right? Like. For example, one of the people. This isn't a spoiler, so don't worry, but like one of the guys who raises the big cats. He, like, also makes country music and he makes these ******* corny *** music videos for them and they include them in the show and they're so hysterical to me. I was crying, laughing, watching these. They're so funny and he's so funny and he doesn't even know it. Like, but he's also, I think he's kind of a murderer. I don't know. I don't know if he's going to be a murderer, but I feel like he's going to kill somebody in the show. Nobody spoil it for me, but he kind of gives me murderer vibes. So we'll see. But I still like stand him, Loki, Joe Exotic, for all of you who have watched the show. But it's so amazing, so I definitely recommend watching it if you're into that ****. It's literally everything that I could want in a show, so I'm super excited to keep watching it and I rarely get excited about shows. But that's been that, and then what else have I been doing? I'm definitely running out of like, life experience and things to talk about here because I literally have not lived. In in days so I'm kind of losing my marbles but I think the the whole. I don't wanna touch on this too much but I will just maybe make you guys give you maybe we can be in this together. I'm I was actually really enjoying being inside and taking this time to relax and like. Get creative, find myself. Whatever, whatever. Totally. I was enjoying it, right? Oh, I'm losing it now. I'm starting to lose it a little bit. I'm starting to really miss everything, and it's definitely taking a little bit of a toll on me. But hey, we're in this together, right guys? We're gonna get through this ****. And. And that's that. I think we have another month at least in LA, so. We'll see how that goes. I think that's it for today's episode. I hope you guys enjoyed. Feel free to ask me questions at a G podcast that is our Twitter. Uh, I always tweet the topic. You guys can tweet me questions about whatever next week topic is going to be. Also, feel free to request topics that you want me to speak about. I like this podcast to be very interactive and I like to be have an open conversation with you guys, so feel free to. Tell me what you want me to talk about. And I love that and appreciate that. So, yeah, that's that. I hope you guys are staying sane, help healthy, staying inside. I think we all know that we're all staying inside at this point. I feel like that's. I feel like people are now actually staying inside. So that's good news. But yeah, I love you all. I appreciate you all. Keep it real. Keep it 100. I'm not going to say that I was going to keep it 100, but that's ******* gross. And peace out. Love you. I was gonna say peace out, love you. But then I said peace out, love. That's ******* gross. Ill sorry. Let me try that again. Peace out. Love you guys a lot. We're here with Phil talking about what's new with heart Nissan. Phil, what are some good reasons somebody should buy now? That's a great question. We all know that car shopping could be an overwhelming process. Plus people are uncertain about a lot these days. Hard Nissan, recognize that? So we rolled up a heart rewards program. All new and pre-owned vehicle purchases get one year identity theft Protection 3, Virginia State inspections and multipoint inspections. One year tire Rd Hazard with roadside assistance, a three day vehicle exchange, and every purchase or service. Burns Heart rewards points. That's a ton of stuff. It's amazing. Offering all those benefits that can really save people a lot of headaches and of course, money. Exactly. And we have even more savings right now. Get 0% financing on all new and certified pre-owned Nissan in our inventory. Phil, thanks so much for coming in. Hartnissan.com right, you got it. Hartnissan.com or check us out in the Apple App Store or Google Play store, use your head and trust your heart maximal finance $20,000 for 60 months with tier one credit approval with MC dealer for full details.