The Leader

by Cheerleader
(Philadelphia)

When you are in high school, you look up at the ones who teach you for the most important lessons. When I was in high school, my cheerleading coaches were not much older than us and had someday been in our shoes. That allowed us to really connect with them.

I used to always drive my cheerleading coach home after practice because for some reason she never wanted to drive. She never even got her license because she hated driving. Ironically, did she know that she would lose her life at the age of 20 in a car accident. She never wore her seat belt and i used to always yell at her because i never wanted to be responsible for anyone getting hurt.

That was the first brush of death that I got in probably my whole life at that point. Her best friend, our other cheerleading coach ended up being pregnant. She named her daughter after our coach that died.