My Reason for College by Bailey

My Reason for College by Bailey - November 2023 Scholarship Essay

My reason for college looks a lot different from most peoples. Most everyone will say they wanna go to college to get a degree or continue the sport they’ve been playing for years. Or they might say they want to continue their education, but my reason looks different.

At the very beginning of my senior year the day before my team's first competition, I had a bad fall out of a stunt which led to a season ending injury. At the time we didn’t know it would lead to a very bad ACL and meniscus tear and my meniscus being flipped due to my bones shifting when I fell. Which is typically a six to nine month recovery period. Mine is much worse within the first month the doctors noticed my recovery would be much longer. They estimated that I’ll have close to a year before I’m back on the mat doing very minimal, but will have close to two years of physical therapy, but I was reassured I don’t have to be done cheering just yet.

Although I can’t currently cheer or really anytime soon, that's my reason for going to college. Since my freshman year I’ve wanted to cheer in college, that was my one goal in life. To make it to the next level, but I thought it would never work out due to having such a bad injury. I decided it might be worth trying to get recruited and I went to a USA combine and met lots of coaches. There were coaches there to watch me and were upset about me being injured, but there was one coach that still wanted me on her team, she reassured me it was still a possibility to continue to cheer. Within the next month I went and toured that school's campus and had a meeting with the coaching staff. They offered me a scholarship and a spot on their team for the upcoming year.

Although cheerleading is my reason for going to college, getting a degree does come with it. Even though my education isn’t my reason for going to college it does still matter to me that the school I decide to go to for the next four years has a good business program and not just a good cheer team. Being given the opportunity to cheer in college even after a season ending injury is major, it will be a long road but just having the chance to complete my one goal is great.