My life, summed up in sports

By Sierra Trujillo

If I were to add up all the time I’ve spent at sporting events, I’m pretty sure it would amount to half of my 24 years of life, if not more. All across the country, all across the spectrum of sports, from cheerleading, to Taekwondo, to baseball, you know by now that I’ve pretty much experienced it all. And with that, it is only fitting that some of the biggest moments of my life have happened either because of sports, or at sporting events.
Let’s start from the beginning. I lost my first tooth while my brother was being presented his first degree black belt. It was a long day, with ceremonies and rituals and the whole nine yards. For a five year old, it seemed like an eternity. I walked in the bathroom, felt my tooth was loose, and pulled it out just like that. I walked back to my mom to hand her my tiny tooth, and she was so focused on the ceremony, she put it in the coin pouch of her wallet without a second thought. It wasn’t until later when she saw the hole in my mouth that she realized what had actually happened. But no worries, the Tooth Fairy still paid a visit that night.
My first year of high school I tried out for the competition cheer team, after already making the freshmen team. However, because sports were our lives, my family left for Cooperstown the night after the tryouts. While in New York for a baseball tournament, a friend had to call and tell me that I hadn’t made the team. I cried, but then we visited the Statue of Liberty and all was well.
When you spend every day, and weekends, with the same group of people, you’re bound to make a few lifelong friends. I’ve written about my bestfriend Cori before, and how we stunted together. We met through cheer and I could never be more thankful. It also turns out that we had seven out of eight classes together freshman year, but it was definitely cheer that led to out 10-year and counting friendship. At least we’ll say it was cheer, because that fits the whole theme of this column.
In the winter of my senior year of high school, my best friend Michael asked me to the formal at cheer practice. He asked me to prom after my last rally and performance. Both times I had a big sparkly bow on my head (because where did I go without it then?).
I met my lovely boyfriend Colton because he played sports with my brother. They went to elementary school through high school together, and I was in charge of taking them to all their practices once I was legally able to drive. And there are a lot of football practices.
I chose a career in sports journalism, so I’m bound to have more moments such as these throughout the years. I guess the only thing that would make it better would be my name being sports-related. Mine’s not, but my brother is named after Mark McGwire. And my older brother’s middle name(s) was almost Felix Jose Canseco, because my parents are obsessed with the A’s. So there’s that.