What a week for me! Not only did I get into my dream program for University we got silver at Cheer for the Cure

He said

Well… there was a lot of excitement this week for Emelia. Of course there was the second Cheer Comp of the season in Cheer for the Cure that took us back to Oshawa this weekend. There was also the deluge of snow that showed up starting Monday and resulted in two days where school was closed (Thursday & Friday) and the buses were canceled all week. But over and above all that excitement there was something that eclipsed all of that by far and away: Wednesday this week she got an email from Kings University College letting her know that she was accepted for both programs that she had applied for university: Bachelor of Arts: Literature and Childhood and Youth Studies. The latter was her dream but to get accepted to all three programs was way beyond her expectations!

So with all of her offers in place, she took literally a second to think about which she wanted to do and sent her acceptance for the program she always and only wanted: Childhood and Youth Studies at Kings and turned down the other two offers. She was so excited and we were so proud of her. So, next year she will be continuing her education journey, down the street in a program that will give her many options—most obviously, the opportunity to pursue being a teacher. And at a school that focused on more one-on-one and student-friendly focus which is just the sort of thing she needs and will thrive in.

If that wasn’t enough excitement this week, when the weekend came – despite the weather –  it was time to shift focus to Cheer! Saturday we were off to Oshawa for Cheer for the Cure for their second comp of the season. Leading up to this one there had been some adjustments, and they really had been focused on honing their routine. They had a first place finish already under their belt so the expectations were high. But, Emelia – always the realist – also knew that they would be in stiff competition. The schedule meant we could go down early afternoon and had a relaxing (as much as possible) start to the day. But, with the 10:20pm Awards Ceremony to end the day and the weather we’d been having all week, we decided to keep our hotel reservation and stay the night and come back today in daylight, rested.

Their performance started well but early in there were some bobbles and a few parts that didn’t go exactly to plan so we knew that depending on how deductions went, they’d been I. tough to repeat their first place from the Fall Classic.  What I was most impressed with was Emelia’s stunt group didn’t get their flyer Avery all the way up and before she fell and touched the mat which meant major deductions, Emelia managed to save her and kept her up, albeit not to the way the stunt should have gone. In the Emelia was disappointed with their performance and presumed the worst. She navigated post performance frustration in her usual way, but as time wore on, and we got dinner she settled in and accepted it for what it was.

When it came time for the Awards Ceremony, in true Cheer Comp form it was twenty-five minutes delayed and we were super thankful for the hotel room thirteen minutes from the Tribute Communities Centre. The other teams they were up against did well but they also had their bobbles. Danielle guessed they would finish second. Emelia in true fashion assumed they would finish third or fourth as she always over focuses on their mistakes and not the other teams. The good news is Emelia was wrong and Danielle was right! Sov finished in second place and were awarded silver medals for it. There’s lots they can sharpen up on for sure, but starting with a First Place and a Second Place finish on the season is a pretty great start. Then, when you add in Emelia’s news earlier in the week, it was a pretty great week for Emelia!!

She said

What a week we had! Not only did we get slammed over and over again with storms that shut down school buses all week, schools including the university for two days. What this meant was lots and lots of shovelling just to keep up. I was working from home on Monday and due to the storm we opted to keep Emelia home from school since we were not too keen on her driving in such bad weather. She was bored out of her mind, add in that cheer training got cancelled she was going stir crazy only one day in. Tuesday to aliviate the boredom we sent her to school and cheer training was back up and running. Emelia said the school was a ghost town but she was happy she went to school because she knew being home she wouldn’t use her time to get school work done as much as she would there. We repeated things on Wednesday and sent her to school but this day was a bit different. About mid-morning we got a message from Emelia letting us know she had received offers to her top choice school, and she got into two programs. Her dream program, her dream school. And with that she had three early offers to all three programs/universities she applied for. To say we are proud would be an understatement. Emelia has not been handed an easy path, she has a signfiicant learning disability and with a lot of hard work and resilience she not only does well in school, she excels. She was happy and shocked and is more determined than ever to keep her grades up, to keep her offer and to keep pausing for higher entry level scholarships.

Emelia went out to visit friends on Wednesday as a quiet celebration, we got her home at a decent hour because we were expecting another blast of winter. We got her home and the next morning woke to even more snow, John and I did another round of snow removal and just as I was about to start walking to work we got messages from the University that we were closed. With an unexpected day off I was able to get things organized for the weekend. The weather got worse and worse throughout the night and it was full on whiteout conditions and the city was almost at a standstill. It tried to clear a bit more of the snow but it was almost pointless because it was coming down so hard. We woke up Friday to another blast of winter and another day of school and university closures. This time I had to work online after we dug out the driveway but at least it seemed that that last blast was nearing the end of the mess we had been dealing with all week. The timing was perfect as we had to leave the next day for Oshawa for Emelia’s cheer competition.

For the last month Emelia and her cheer team had been working on some level up skills for the routine to ensure that they were staying competitive as we found out that their win from their first competition was VERY close, this meant they needed to up the difficulty and clean things up. The girls adapted quickly but the last couple practices the girls were struggling to hit the routine. The girls never give up, this team is so bonded and really builds each other up. They have been working so hard. The weekend came up quick and the girls were determined to hit and put on an incredible performance. Emelia said things in the practice gym went well to they came out confident. The routine started well until the first part of the first stunt and Emelia’s stunt group who always hits missed their mark and the flyer did not get up into position, they recovered quickly and got Avery up for the remainder of the stunt. That is a 2 point deduction, add in two misses for two athletes in their tumbling lines which meant another 4 points deducted. After that it was in the girls heads, they were no where near as clean as they normally are, so even with all that they were able to secure a silver medal. I am proud of how they pulled it together but what that also shows them is that they have a competitive routine that if they can hit it clean and up a few more elements they were able to dream of more golds this season.

All in all it was an incredible week. Full of chaos, life changing news and cheer competition energy. And we would not have it any other way!