Would you dig your heart out for it?

I was never a very active kid when I was in primary school, just played badminton leisurely as an ECA. When I got to secondary school, that was when I discovered my afinity to sports. I picked up basketball for a while, then I was selected for track and field. At the end of sec 1, year 1995, I picked up soccer for the very first time. Due to my training in track, I was very fast, and it suits the game of soccer very much. Although I just picked up soccer, I became one of the better players in just a few months time, and represented my school. It was then my passion for soccer was born, and it carried on from Sec Sch through my JC, army, and then early University life, all in all for about 10 years.

JC soccer team,

During my 1st year in NTU,

Year 2004 IHG,

Last tournament,

I loved soccer so much that I wanted to play soccer every second. Anywhere there is soccer to be played, I would rush down, be it very far away. For soccer, I can wake up very early in the morning, for example I used to play Sunday soccer every morning at 8 in Braddell. My whole life then was practically all about soccer, play soccer, watch soccer, study video clips for tricks and inspirations, run and train regularly to keep fit, I can never describe it well enough to do it justice. I was just crazy then. I would consider myself an above average player and sometimes mercurial.

And how does my soccer crossed paths with cheerleading? I would have mentioned this many times already, that I started cheerleading in early 2004. At that time, soccer was still my passion, and cheerleading had to take a back seat. However from 2004 and for the next 2 years, it is the "transistional period". I slowly grew to like cheerleading more, and it started to take up more of my time. I used to skip cheerleading training because of soccer matches, till slowly I started to skip soccer matches because of cheerleading training. For the whole of 2004 and 2005, it keeps ding-dong here and there between soccer and cheerleading. Somehow, my time and energy does not allow me to be seriously involved in both at the same time. For me, when I do something, I want to make the best out of it, there is only room for 1 passion.

Cheerleading and soccer are 2 totally different sport. For soccer, I used to run daily and was very fast and light footed. My weight during Cheerobics 2005 was a mere 69kg, a far cry to my weight now. However as my urge to do better and better in cheerleading increased, I knew I had to put on some weight and strength. I started to gym more and run less, this had a adverse effect on my soccer abilities. This struggle between soccer and cheerleading lasted for 2 years, thoughout my first 2 Cheerobics competition.

By the year end of 2005, due to injuries, dissapointments in soccer, together with the knowledge that I am on a downhill slide for soccer, yet not being able to inject more time and energy to climb back up, I decided once and for all that this is it. This is the end of the road for my passion in soccer. It was a very tough decision to make, soccer had been my love for the last 10 years. I was very emotional and even cried, it was the day after I played the last game, of my last tournament in NTU, of my last kick in soccer. I wrote to myself a letter, of grieve and disappointment, before I set deep in my mind to park aside my love for soccer, and buried it deep inside my heart. Below is the letter I wrote.

It was only after that day, then can I give all my heart and soul into cheerleading. It was then my passion for cheerleading was given a chance to start. Only from then, can I proclaim my love and passion for cheerleading, and it has since been almost 3 years.

P.S: Do anything with passion, single mindedness passion, only then you can labour and sow whole heartedly for it. Sacrifices had to be made, even if it is at the expense of another passion. The choice is yours, no matter how heart wrenching it is going to be.