Today I stumbled across some pictures and the Web site for my old job. Back in college, I spent three summers teaching cheerleading camps all over Texas (and a fateful camp in New Mexico… but that’s another story). Sometimes we stayed in dorms (good old Texas Women’s University was my second home each summer), sometimes we stayed in po-dunk motels (Motel 6 was one of the nicer ones), and once I stayed in a renovated hospital clinic (again… the New Mexico story).

But along the way, I made some wonderful friends and learned a lot about leading, public speaking, problem solving, and choreographing funny skits to N’Sync songs to get cheap laughs out of high school kids. ACA (American Cheerleaders Association) was a wonderful job, and looking back at all of those pictures made me miss it. I can’t believe it’s been 9 years since I taught my first camp. Which means it’s been 7 years since my last back flip. Thank goodness for that one.

So Brad, I’m sorry for kicking you in bad places while practicing our stunts (thanks for never dropping me on my head). Ashley, I miss killing time by trying to see how curly we could make our hair and how much glitter we could spray on ourselves. I miss practicing our dances until I felt like I was going to collapse. I have good memories of sitting on the floor in the dorm hallway, listening to funny stories from Alton until we all cried. Or late night Sonic runs because the dorm food was so gross and we were starving. I even miss the long days outside in the brutal Texas heat, because it meant I was being paid to play around with friends. It was a privilege to work with high school kids from all over the state, and my favorite job before I entered the “real world.”

Thanks ACA!