Hooray for June – the cheering month

We have stepped into the month of celebration – June is the culmination of many activities. Graduation ceremonies are taking place in preschools and universities – they are handing out awards and diplomas with abandon. Sports teams are making playoffs and year end shows are selling tickets. Kids everywhere are marching forward, taking giant steps into their next chapters and saying goodbye to arenas of security. June is a month of trophies and parties. It’s busy.

Among the events I have marked on my calendar is a dance recital for three tiny dancers. It’s a big deal. I am the first to admit that none of these tiny dancers is a Shirley Temple – they won’t take the world by storm – but they are stars in every sense of the word to all the people who love them. Their fans will fill a number of seats in the audience for both the afternoon and evening performances. Those tiny dancers are excited – they are anticipating cheers, applause and arm loads of flowers. They know the drill – this is not their first recital.

Our girls hail from a long line of cheerers – they were born into an enthusiastic family of participants and cheerleaders. When one member of the family performs the rest of us audience like pros – ‘audience’ to us is a verb. It has ever been thus.

My kids grew up audiencing — our girls sat through scores of hockey and baseball games while their brother participated, and he sat through an equal number of skating competitions and dance recitals. It wasn’t just expected, it was enjoyed. Little wonder they grew up to expect the same from their own children.

Our eldest granddaughter was barely walking when she began her cheering adventures – she and I followed our bike riders during the Ride to Conquer Cancer trek from Vancouver to Seattle. We held signs and rang bells and yelled “good job” to anyone on a bicycle (even to riders not participating in the official ride). Her cousin and sister joined the squad as soon as they could walk as well. They were all cheerleading pros before they were three years old. It has never crossed their minds that they wouldn’t cheer. One of the girls even offered to come to a hot yoga class I was taking so she could cheer for my warrior pose. They’ve known about audiencing for their whole lives.

This June I will attend a dance recital, a preschool graduation and a swimming lesson badge presentation. All of the events will be awesome – I will clap and cheer with an enthusiasm only a grandmother can muster (with uninhibited abandon). I will take audiencing to a whole new level – they will know that I’m there. That is, after all, what the cheering month is all about.