This weekend was my first double comp weekend. The day didn’t go like we hoped but we still had so much fun!
He said
Typically when we head off to Emelia’s Cheer Comps, we are deliberately over generous when we plan on what time we need to leave in order to be there. We usually plan to leave two to three hours ahead of when we should to buffer for traffic, weather, and any other sort of curveballs that come our way. Up until yesterday’s Comp, we’ve never needed the time and have always arrived with more than enough time. The added benefit is for Emelia who can be anxious on performance day, it allows her the time to decompress, watch some other teams and basically get ready mentally. And, given that a good concentration of Emelia’s Comp season falls between January to the end of February and some of our worst winter weather it really helps with that.
So, yesterday the plan was to leave well ahead of when we needed to in order to secure that same sort of buffer. Especially relevant with the winter weather we have been getting blasted with the last week. We got about a block and half down the street before Emelia realized she had forgotten her AirPods at the house. A quick loop back to the house, and a stop at the gas station and soon enough we were on our way pretty darned close to the time we had wanted to be on the road by. While we were getting some snow on the way out of town, by the time we were near Ingersoll, the snow had subsided and it looked like we were going to have a smooth sailing trip to Oshawa.
Around an hour down the road, at Kitchener from the back seat Emelia announced that she was pretty certain that she had forgotten probably the most important part of her uniform: her skirt!! In about the thirty seconds that followed we decided to call the audible, and turn around and hammer it back to London. Quickly that little over two hour buffer we had put in place was going to be used… and then some. Danielle reached out to her Coach to let her know what was going on and that while we would be late for Athlete’s drop off we would make it time for the performance for sure. And, of course Emelia was beside herself with anxiety that we weren’t going to make it, and beating herself up for forgetting it. Little did she know, her father relishes challenge and has a bit of a lead foot.
While I won’t publish the speed I drove, but I will say that we made the whirlwind trip back to the house and were back en route to Oshawa with breakneck speeds. Initially the ETA on Apple Maps had us arriving more than twenty minutes late for the athlete drop off. Thankfully the roads were not littered with the normal busy traffic, and the Express Toll Route (ETR) that we often patron to avoid driving through Toronto helped us make amazing time. As we got closer and closer we saw the ETA shave down minute by minute. Once we were clear of the ETR and back onto the 401, we knew were okay as you’re pretty much at Oshawa at that point. In the end, we were less the five minutes late for the arrival. In fact we were so smooth that Rayna her coach was texting Danielle instructions with where Emelia should meet them, when she realized that she had already slipped in with the team.
As far as the performances went, after all the stress of the day was removed, and she went into performance mode—the forgotten skirt and rush reroute to London and back was long in our rearview. Both Sovereignty and Valour (Emelia’s second team) put on good performances, but not necessarily their best. Thankfully though with this being a smaller Comp, they weren’t up against a ton of teams and they finished first for Sov, and second for Valour. The advantage of being up against themselves as Sov and only one other team as Valour gave them the chance to not have their greatest performance but still have great results, which on the season will help build a much better story.
What we have learned with this being the first Comp for Valour, is that it’s actually so much better for Emelia to have a second time to perform in the same day and to be able to just have fun and the joy of Cheer. Not that Valour doesn’t care about winning it is just that the their is a different mindset to this team and the performance criteria is a little different. The best part was, there wasn’t much time for Emelia to obsess over what didn’t go right in their first performance, because it was right on to focusing on the next team. We’ll see how that holds up over the rest of the Comp season when it’s two teams and two days of performance each time, but for now I feel like this is going to be really good for her!
She said
This week has been another crazy one for Emelia. As she starts wrapping up her first semester of grade 12 the big projects, presentations and papers are all coming due, add in exam prep and other school work her load is full just there. But added into that was a lot of extra Cheer practices plus her usual social life it has been a very packed week. Emelia honestly has been taking it all in stride and doing so well. We have mention on this blog before that Emelia has a significant learning disability so the grades she is getting and the focus and drive she has is something that we are so proud of. The grades she is coming home with are beyond impressive.
With all the school work and extra practices Emelia was burning at both ends. She kept on top of it all so much that when she was invited to one of her lifelong friends birthday we were happy to let her go. Emelia and a huge group of her friends all went to celebrate Dhiya turning 18! Emelia’s closest friends came over before to get ready here and then I drove Emelia. Bri, Belle and Carter to the party. Emelia had a great time and with it being a big friend hangout Emelia was home and in bed before midnight to get to bed to prep for the completion in Oshawa.
Saturday morning we all got up, got things organized and hit the road with plenty of time to make the trip to Oshawa for Winterfest. This competition was the first time Emelia would be competing for both of her teams. Emelia was nervous but excited. This is a very small comp—so small they do not hand out medals just banners for the gyms. It would give the girls on Valour to get on the floor for the first time with little pressure. We were on our way and as John has already talked about the day did not go off without a big hiccup. With that stress out of the way and handing Emelia off to her coach things started to calm down. Emelia and her Sov team were going in loose and ready. But things did not go as well as they had hoped. Emelia’s stunt group that is typically solid at every practice, rarely does not hit their stunts had a fall. That was big dedication number one and the the pyramid there was a stunt that went sideways and a flyer got pulled down. It was not their best run at all. Thankfully like I said it was a small comp with no consequences. Now their coach was less than happy with how they performed. Brushing off that run Emelia went over with some of her teammates from Sov to compete with Valour. This was their first time competing. This team has come sooooo far in the last few weeks. Unfortunately they had some misses on stunts and ended up with a fair bit of deductions which pushed them second against a team that they should have easily beat. Thankfully the coaches were amazing after and told them they were fine and that the next comp they would hit and do much better.
With the January competitions out of the way Emelia has now shifted her focus on not only exams but her 18th birthday. She has another party this weekend for another friend who turns 18 this week, Emelia has a ton of friends with birthdays near her so she is bouncing back and forth to parties this month. Emelia’s 18th is a week today (OMG how did that happen!!!!), with her birthday falling in the middle of finals we are shifting the celebration for her and her friends to be the weekend after. Emelia has opted to two gatherings. The first will be with her closest friends the Wednesday night after the last final exam. At that party she is inviting, Bri, Belle, Ashley, Shai, Matheus and Carter. They will go out for dinner and then back here to hang out and celebrate. The next one will be on the Friday and that is with her close girlfriends, the girls from the close core group are invited but so are about 15 of her other friends. We will have the whole group here and have a party with her big group. Emelia has had a pretty big shift in friends this year and we are so happy to see her go far out of her comfort zone and she has really landed in a great place.