Welcome to Base Camp by Altitude. Before you do anything else inside this community — introduce yourself right here in the comments below. This is how you find your people. A base in Texas finds another base in Texas. A 15 year old male cheerleader finds other male athletes who get it. A flyer chasing her college dream finds someone on the exact same path. It all starts with this post. Use this format: Name: Age: Hometown: Position: Current gym or program: Biggest cheer goal right now: One thing I want to get out of Base Camp: Drop your introduction in the comments below and go find someone else who just introduced themselves and welcome them. That is the culture we are building here. The climb is better together. — Coach Jay

Something I wish someone had told me before college: The transition from high school and Junior USA to collegiate cheer is real, and if this is something you truly want for yourself, you need to prepare for it. And I don’t mean skill-wise. I mean emotionally. I wish someone had told me that college wasn’t going to expose my weaknesses as an athlete nearly as much as it exposed my relationship with myself. For years, I thought being hard on myself was what made me successful. I thought confidence came after achievement. I thought the athletes who made it were the ones who never let themselves be satisfied. So I was constantly chasing the next skill, the next accomplishment, the next reason to finally feel like I was enough. The problem is that no achievement ever fixed that feeling. When I got to Alabama, I realized college cheer wasn’t just a harder version of what I had done before. It was a completely different environment. For the first time, I was truly on my own. And when you’re on your own, the way you talk to yourself matters. The pressure you put on yourself matters. The belief you have in yourself matters. Because the same voice that shows up when you’re struggling in practice is the voice that shows up when life doesn’t go your way. College exposed that for me. It showed me how much of my self-worth was tied to performance. How often I tore myself down in the name of discipline. How much energy I spent trying to prove I belonged instead of believing I belonged. At the same time, I realized the athletes who earned the most trust weren’t always the most talented. They were the most coachable. The most consistent. The athletes who could get corrected without taking it personally. The athletes who made everyone around them better. The biggest lesson college taught me wasn’t how to stunt better. It taught me that confidence isn’t something you earn after you’re good enough. It’s something you choose before you feel ready. Now, don’t misunderstand me.