NATURALLY HER

Senior Evie Hussaini finds her place in cheerleading

by Sofia Ball design by Veronica Meiss photo by Sydney Jackson

While some were out partying, others were at the movies and most curled up in a queen-size comforter, senior Evie Hussaini spent her Friday night cleaning out her closet.

As she sorted through old sweatpants and winter jackets, something caught her eye.

Just like that, she was 12 years old again, out on the mat in her sister’s two-sizes-too-large athletic shorts, and a neon t-shirt with “Little Sally Walker” echoing throughout the church gymnasium.

I don’t know anything. Let me just try my best. If I go in the back, they won’t notice if I do something wrong, she thought to herself, eyeing the brick walls anxiously.

Hussaini had wanted to cheer since stepping foot on the Olathe North bleachers, eyeing the older girls form pyramids on beat, their flashy skirts like raindrops beneath the fluorescent lighting.

Since then, she’s dreamed of grasping the shiny plastic pom-poms.

Hussaini is naturally loud.

Naturally bold.

Naturally peppy.

Naturally her.

But cheer never came naturally.

“I was so worried about doing something wrong and them thinking I didn’t have what it takes,” Hussaini said. “My jumps [were] like two inches off the ground. I wasn’t very flexible. [And learning]routines? You could drill that into me 24 hours a day and I wouldn’t know what I was doing.”

However, six years later Hussaini gets ready each morning, smiling at four All American cheer ribbons neatly taped to her vanity mirror, crowded by Post-its filled with encouragement from her teammates.

But beneath the eyeliner, the combed back hair, the black and orange SMNW halter top and that preppy facade, there would always be a hidden part of her.

“I think I had the mentality down that I was a cheerleader in my head,” Hussaini said. “But physically, no. I was always a bigger kid. Originally when I joined with one of my best friends, she had always been a lot smaller than me. And she looked a lot different in the uniforms than I did. Whenever we’d take pictures together our parents would be like ‘Oh my god, you should hold her up because she’s so small and you’re like the bigger friend’. It just made me feel less than she was because I was the supporting friend and she was more what a cheerleader should be.”

But over time, throughout the late nights, the routine rehearsals, the games and the water breaks, Hussaini started to gain confidence.

“Everyone has their own insecurities,” Hussaini said. “At the end of the day, you just have to be confident and if you can’t be confident, fake it till you make it, because once you get over the fear of ‘Am I gonna fit in?’ or ‘Are they gonna like me?’, it’ll come to you naturally and you’ll find [your place].”