A Pep Talk

I was a cheerleader in high school. No, that’s not an announcement of prestige. Have you read my accounts of high school? First of all, my graduating class was 43. The rest of the girls in my class were in sports, so everyone needed to participate in order to have a basketball team and wrestling and basketball cheerleaders.

In the winter of eighth grade, there was one basketball cheerleader, my friend Shirley. (By comparison, there were three wrestling cheerleaders. I think they just wanted to sit on their lazy asses.) I stayed after school one day to help her make locker signs: one person cannot make sixteen signs every three days for junior high games. The next day, I stayed and watched her cheer to empty bleachers. Some voices are gobbled up in large, empty spaces, but not Shirley’s. She shouted her cheers so that the teams could hear her, and as people filed in for the following varsity game, she even got some crowd participation. After the game, she took me to the Home Ec room and handed me a Cheer outfit.

And so it began, the illusion that my friends have of me being this high-flying, sassy bitch, thanks to all of those cheer movies. Truth is, I filled a much needed position in a thankless town, and I hated every minute of it.

Even so, some of my friends look to me to cheer them up, cheer them on, and give them the old, “Chin up, Darling,” pep talk. (I know what you’re thinking…they want a pep talk from EDIE? WHY? Surely, there must be better candidates.)

So here’s my pep talk for the 20th day of January, 2015:

Be the highest expression of who you are.

Do what you must do to express your soul, and don’t take any flack for it.

At the end of the day, the only person you can please is yourself. As long as you are happy with the results, nothing else matters.

Own your mistakes, and then let them go. Everyone makes mistakes.

If someone else has their panties in a bunch when you did something that didn’t break a law or result in someone’s death, that is someone else’s problem, not yours.

Be happy. Do what you love. Live an authentic life. Be who you are. Love yourself.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/0kT5w27YxyI&source=uds

If you’re already sad, this song is not going to cheer you up, but it’s true. I love all of you. And Anthony Kiedis is pretty.

Above all, my friends, find happiness and gratitude in each experience. Laugh at the absurd. Giggle at the silly. Know that I hate coddling anyone, but I wrote this blog for you. And no, I’m not saying I coddled you. (Though I kept my inner demon caged oh so tightly. You will never know the number of evil, rotten memes I left out.)