On October 5, my countdown began: 30 days until my 30th birthday. In honor of this, on each of the 30 days leading up to my birthday I will recount one memory from the past 30 years… either one that has helped define me, one that makes me laugh, one that makes me think, one that encourages me…  or maybe a little of everything. If possible, I will post a photo to go along with the memory.

It’s my 30/30/30 Project: 30 years. 30 memories. 30 days.

Here is my memory for Day #8:

My parents worked at the same school until I was in 5th grade. Mom was an English and Reading teacher and Dad was a Math teacher turned Guidance Counselor. It was how they had met back in 1975.

Since they worked at a high school, they would take us kids to a lot of the athletic events to cheer on their students. They were also good friends with the school’s basketball coach, so those were the games we went to the most.

From an early age, I remember being fascinated by the cheerleaders. I loved their enthusiasm. I loved the way they’d jump into the middle of the court during game breaks and get the crowd going. I was obsessed with their pom poms. I wanted to be a cheerleader when I grew up.

This is probably why Mom made me and Audrey cheerleader costumes for Halloween in 1984. Mom sewed a big “J” on the front of my sweater and a big “A” on the front of Audrey’s, as well as little “Cs” on both of our skirts. She put pigtails in our hair. And, of course, she bought us pom poms.

I was just about to turn 4 years old that Halloween. Dad took a video of me, Audrey and Mom before we headed to a Halloween party, which, as you’ll see, we were more than happy to cheer about it. I’m not sure how much of what I remember about that day is my actual memory vs. the memory of watching this video over the years.

I don’t remember actually going to the very Halloween party we were so excited about attending, but when I watch this video, I remember all the fun times we had at our old house and in our old backyard. The house has changed quite a bit with the new owners (I’ve been inside and it looks amazing – but it is definitely different!), so it’s nice to have old photos and videos to help us remember the way things were.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSFmzWYo4ps[/youtube]