63. How I Earned Money For Cheer Camp and The Mindset That Got Me Through

Hello, my beautiful friend, and welcome to the Mind Body Alignment podcast. I'm your host, Tessa Romero, and also your coach. I'm here to teach you powerful skills and tools to not only know who you are, but how to become exactly who you want to be with a mindset that finally supports you. I'm so grateful that you're here. Let's get started. It is story time, my friends. And I love it when I have a good story to tell with you. And this one takes us all the way back to. To the summer going into my junior year of high school. Baby, that was a very challenging time of my life. And I laugh about it because I reflect on, like, who I was, what I was doing, what I was thinking, not because what I was going through was funny. It wasn't funny in the least. I've just noticed that as I reflect on my life and the ways that I've grown, I do find some humor in who I was being, and I think it was just a little bit funny of some of the things that I did and didn't do and was thinking at the time. So, anyway, summer going into my junior year of high school, and really the message of this episode is I hope to instill with you some hope and some inspiration and for you to know that it is possible for you to do things if you simply allow yourself to believe that there is another way, that there's another way to think about something, there's another way to do something. There's another way that something can be accomplished. If you allow yourself to think, think that way, then you will see more possibility. You will come up with problem solving and solutions that you're like, oh, my gosh, that is a great idea. Or sometimes it's not a great idea and it still solves the problem. So that is when it gets funny. Okay, so if you are at a time in your life where you're just like Tessa, there's no other way to think about this. There's nothing else that I can do. There's no solution to this problem. Right. Whatever it is, I hope this story inspires you. It stills open, gives you a little bit of more insight as to who I was my junior year of high school. Well, the summer going into my junior of high school. Okay, so here's what happened. I really wanted to do cheer. I really wanted to be a cheerleader. It just seemed like a fresh start that I was needing in my life. My freshman sophomore year, I didn't do anything. I felt so, so insecure, so uncomfortable with Myself, I didn't pursue activities and sports and clubs and groups and things. Like, I just didn't do anything. I mean, I still showed up. Okay, so I didn't do anything. That is really inaccurate. I did not pursue extra curricular activities. There we go. So anyway, my junior year, I was like, you know what? I'm done with this. Like, I am going to try out for Cheers. And I felt super nervous, super uncomfortable. I. I knew one girl on the cheer team, and I had been friends with her for a couple years, and then she was like, come on, Tessa, just do it. Leisha, if you're ever listening to my podcast, it was you. So anyway, she was like, just do it with me. And I was, okay. And she was on the varsity team, and I was, like, trying out for jv. I was like, I think I can do jv. So anyway, we decide, like, hey, we're gonna try out. And she's already feeling confident about it because she's done cheer. And I'm like, okay, I did some big pep talks, and she was, like, there for me every step of the way. She was totally a huge source of encouragement for me during that, because if. If you're familiar with my story at all, like, I didn't have that type of encouragement coming from my home. So I, as a little girl, was always really good at wiggling my way into other people's spirit families. Like, my boyfriend's family. I was extremely close with them. My girlfriend's, like, I would be so close with their families, and I just. I found that sense of belonging and family from other people's families, not my own at the time. And that was just my personal experience. So, anyway, super close with them. They're like, you can do this, Tessa. Drive. They were driving me to the practices and stuff, and. And it was awesome. And then I ended up being. Making more friends while I was there, and I was like, wow, this is, like, so fun to feel like I have friends and friends that are not doing drugs or not wanting to drink alcohol again. Laughing because it's funny. Anyway, they're just. It just seemed like a really good influence in my life and an opportunity for me to grow, step out of my comfort zone, learn new things, challenge myself. All these things. Things. And I ended up making the team, and I got to be a flyer. I was a flyer my junior and senior years of high school. And I also loved all the positions, like, if I could be the base, if I could be the back spot, if I could be a front spot, if I could If I could do anything, I was like, I'm freaking game. Like, I was just so pumped to be there for a lot of reasons. One, it was, again, a positive. It was just a positive outlet in my life, and I loved the people that I was around. I loved the physical challenge and the endurance. I would try so much, so hard in the workouts. And it just honestly felt like a big escape for me in my life at that time. And I was just so grateful to have somewhere else to go after school instead of going home. That was just the place that I was at and games to be at on the weekends instead of peer pressure of the. Some of the influences in my life at the time. And again, being home, I didn't want to be home anyway, so I made the team. And part of making the team was the requirement to go to cheer camp. And cheer camp was like, $600 or something. It. It was. It was a lot. It was a lot of money for me, for my family, and it was required. You needed to go to cheer camp if you wanted to be on the team. And I was not in a place personally to be vulnerable enough to talk to the coaches and be like, hey, yeah, this is my home life situation. Is there something else I can do to raise money? Is there, like, a scholarship? But I was not in the vulnerable position. I was like, okay, I'll go to cheer you up. And I was like, yes, I'll be there without any plan. And this is just so much. I still have this trait in me to say, yes, I'll be there, and then make a plan later. Sometimes it drives Marcus a tiny bit crazy because he's such a planning type of guy, and I love that about him. And he honestly helps make our dreams a reality because I'm so good at dreaming, and he's really good at planning because I sometimes lack in that department anyway. So I was like, yes, I'll be at cheer camp, and I understand it's like, $650, $600, and, yeah, I'll be there. No plan. No plan for money at all. And I was not about to be vulnerable at that time in my life. There's no flipping way I was gonna be vulnerable enough to. To be like, hey, this is my situation. So first stop, I went home, and I talked to my mom, and I was like, mom, there's a cheer camp, and it's $600, and I would really like to go, is there, like, a way that I can earn this money or you can help me by, like, pitching in Things like that. And it was a pretty clear no. And there are other parts of this story that made finances, like, such a strain in my family growing up. And for a long time, I had a really intense scarcity mentality about money. And I. That is something that I'm willing to open up with you guys about because it's something I've been able to work through, and I still very consciously and actively work on it, because when conditioning like that is ingrained in you and the influences in your life are just so big that screams scarcity. There's not enough. We don't have enough. We can't make that. Like, we'll never be able to. All that kind of stuff. It does take your conscious effort to rewrite that programming in your mind. And. And I've been able to do that over the past five years or so of intentionally focusing on it. At this point in my life, I had a pretty. Yeah, I had a scarcity mentality, for sure. I just really wanted to go to cheer camp. So I think wanting to go to Cheer Clamp, wanting this sense of safety, somewhere to go, belonging, friendships, influences, just this opportunity mattered so much more to me than thinking there's not enough money and I don't have the money and I can't go and allowing myself to get stuck there. So, yes, I talked to my mom, and that was a pretty clear no. And then I decided I came up with a different plan. So this is. This is a story that I honestly used to feel really ashamed of, and now I shared it with the girls at the. At my Revive retreat earlier this year, and they're like, that is the best freaking story. You need to do a podcast episode. I was like, honestly, I haven't even been, like, thinking about it for quite some time. So, anyway, that's why it's on the podcast today, because I do think it could inspire you and instill hope that you can take your life in a direction that you want to go. And sometimes, you know, the. The solution, the opportunity, the other option is not obvious, and you just make it. You make it because the change and what you want matters so much more to you than continuing in this cycle of negativity and honestly fighting for your limitations. Why the frick should I be fighting for? I don't have enough money compared to working so hard to get out of that. That mentality, that way of life. And what was modeled to me, like, I don't want to fight for my limitations. I really. I want to fight for what I want. And if that means building a new mentality, disciplining myself, creating new routines. Like, I'm going to do it. So anyway. Used to be a story that I feel. That I felt really ashamed of, because I think you're gonna. I think you're. You'll get the hint of why I felt ashamed of it. Las Vegas, the Strip, money. Like, it just. There might have been other ways to get the money. That's okay. That's why I felt ashamed of it, because I just thought, like, I didn't tell anybody. I did not tell anybody how I did this. And thank God I had this wonderful aunt in my life who was literally, like, married. It's not my mom's sister or my dad's sister. She was married into the family, and then they divorced, and she just stuck around. And it's Auntie Edna, and she is the actual best human on the planet. She's freaking amazing. I'm so glad that she just, like, claimed us as family. Anyway, so Auntie Edna, she so wonderful. She has, like, the best, brightest personality. At the time, she was trying to earn more money in, like, Odd Job ways. So she. This is. This is amazing. She bought costumes and wore them on the Strip and took pictures with people for money, and she did very well with it. So this is how I got the idea in the first place that I. Okay. I did not get into a costume costume. I remember one of them. Oh, I love my Auntie Edna. She had a Smurf costume. That was the one that I really remember. And again, this is like, gosh, how old am I? Literally, this is like 13 or more years ago. This is a long time ago. So I just remember the Smurf costume the most. And I know she had other ones, but anyway, she would wear the costume and people would pay to, like, take a picture with her. And I'm like. And, hey, that's making you money. My mom said, we don't have any money. I really want to go to cheer camp. I'm going to go with you one night. And she's like, yeah, you can come with me. It'll be great. Like, I'll. I'll be there. I'll keep you safe. Gosh. So anyway, this is the Las Vegas Strip, you know, have you heard of the Las Vegas Strip? All the big buildings, the casinos, drunk people. There are people that, like, smack cards against their hand and they make a really loud noise. And it's just nude cards that they're, like, passing out to people. It is not a place that a junior not even A junior in high school, a going into junior year of high school, girl belongs. That's not where I belonged. Anyway, I was using it, though. I was using it. And I also inside note, I was, okay, this is how I'm gonna make the money. I'm gonna go with my aunt however many nights I need to, and I'm gonna make this freaking money, and I'm going to your camp, and no one's gonna know about it because I feel super ashamed that I'm doing this. And I felt guilty. It just felt like the wrong thing to do. I just really wanted to, like, make money anyway, so I. I didn't have a cheer uniform. So at my high school, they did not give you the cheer uniform to, like, keep, like, after you graduate and stuff. So you get to keep it at home with you for the season, and then you give it back at the end of the season. So in the fees and stuff that we're paying, we're basically renting the uniform, and then the school gets to keep it. So anyway, the season hasn't. Hadn't started yet, so we didn't get our uniforms yet. What I did get was the. The clothes that I had got, like, some shorts, some Sophie shorts. You guys know those cotton ones? I did buy a pair of those for cheer tryout and white tennis shoes for cheer tryouts. So I had Sophie shorts and white tennis shoes. And I had a talent at the time. I actually would still say I'm talented at it. I just haven't been doing it for a while. I was really excellent at making shirts. Yeah, like buying a T shirt, getting jewels, a hot glue gun, puffy paint, and making the shirt. Exactly. I would cut the sides of it and tie it into little knots on the sides to give it, like, a little frill on the side. And then I would hot glue a jewel onto each one of those little things. I made those T shirts to support, like, my friend at our softball game. I made them all the time to support my boyfriend at his baseball games. And, yeah, I just often wore the puffy page shirts that I would make. I was so freaking cute. Anyways, I made one for the strip. I made a. I made a little cheer shirt for myself to wear on the Las Vegas strip since I didn't have uniform and a sign, and my sign said raising money to go to cheer camp. Could you. Can you even imagine walking on the Las Vegas strip at night? This was not a daytime thing that I did. I got home from school, and I waited until my aunt was going so we probably left at like 7 o' clock and we were probably out there until like one in the morning. For me to raise this money, it might have honestly been later than that. I just remember I stayed the weekend at my aunt's house. I truly do not even think my mom knows that I did this. Like I'm 98 sure that she doesn't know. I don't know how she would know. Maybe it's like a mom thing to know. I don't know. My aunt knows, that's for sure. Anyway, so I had my puffy paint shirt, I had my sign raising money to go cheer camp. We found a little corner, worked a corner on the Las Vegas strip. We found a little corner. I stood there in my put my piece together cheer outfit that, like, it doesn't even look like I'm on a freaking cheer team. So anyway, what I did know, my big advantage in all this was I was determined to go to cheer camp. Like, I was gonna freaking make this happen. However it was gonna happen, if I need to come out here every night for a week, two weeks, a month, I was gonna do it. I was gonna make this money somehow. And I wasn't old enough to like have a job yet. So there's that part two. So anyway, went out there and I did know the cheers. I knew the cheers, the blue and white forever shout for victory. I knew the cheers that we do at our school. I knew the fight song. That was fight song. And I was like, well, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put my sign right here against this little wall. I'm gonna have my bucket in front of me and I'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna do these chairs. And I was so laser focused on showing up and that I had it convinced in my mind this is the way that I'm going to make the money. And you want to know something? People were so kind to me. There was not one person that was like, look at this, look at this. Calling me names. Like, no. People were so nice to me. They were so supportive. They're like, this is amazing. I don't know if they'd want their kid out there doing it, but they're really proud of me for being a kid out there doing it. And my aunt, the whole time, my Auntie Edna, she was just sitting. There was like a fountain nearby and she was sitting on the edge of the fountain. She's like really, really short. I mean, under five feet. She's so short. And she was Sitting on the little fountain. And I remember she was just sipping a drink with her little straw, kicking her feet and, like, so proud of me, watching me. And I did. In that, like, in that moment, I did feel proud of me. I was like, I am out here doing these cheers and I'm doing them loud. I'm doing them proud. I'm confident. And it was like, I think that was one of the really earliest experiences of my mindset being I can do this, and my mindset being in a place of like, I can earn this money. To me, it wasn't about like, oh, that's too much money for me to be able to go to cheer camp. The experience was, I can make the money. I just need to figure out how I'm going to make the money. I can make the money. And I just kept that narrative in my mind. I can make the money. I can make the money. I can make the money. And then it just all worked out in this way. Now, are there other ways I could have earned money? Yeah. I could have been vulnerable enough to tell the cheer coaches because I told my. One of my chair coaches is now my sister in law's mom. We cheered together. Super cute. I know. And I told her that story before. She's like, tessa, we would have, like, put a fundraiser on for you, a car wash bun for you. We would have helped you pay to get there. Like, she was so kind. I was like, I know. I just think in that place in my life, I was not about to let people know about my home life. And that's just what I need to do. And honestly, it's a story that I hold very dear in my heart now, Like, I love myself that I did that. And yeah, I used to. It used to be like a shame story for me. And now I'm just like, I am so freaking cool. Like, look at me go. Like, could something bad have happened? Yes. Did something bad happen? No. And that's the important part. So anyway, that night goes on. People are so nice to me. There are lots of drunk men, especially, throwing chips in my bucket. And I was like, well, what the frick am I gonna do with that? Like, I'm not even old enough to go in there and, like, exchange this out. I was like, but my Auntie Edna is so. I was like, chips, great. Cash better. We can make anything work. There were coins, like, quarters in there. It was cash, chips and quarters. And I was just, like, so excited. I was so excited. I don't have one picture of proof or video trust Me, if I did, I would show it to you a hundred times over. I would show it to you because I just think it is so cool. And I. I just think that sometimes the stories of your life, you're like, oh, my gosh, I cannot believe that I did that. Look at that story again and really ask yourself, like, who was I at that time that was so devoted and so determined and so committed and so just strong and a fighter that I figured it out and I did that thing. Was there another way that I could have done it? Yeah. There's also a reason why I did it this way. So look at that reason why and see, like, See how strong you are and capable and resilient and, gosh, just committed, devoted. And I just think it's okay to be a fighter. It's okay to. To refuse to back down and be relentless. Like, it is okay to be those things. And you know when to be those things. Like, I. At that point in time, like, I believed, hey, I need to be that right now. And I'm gonna be that right now because I'm not letting this go. I finally feel like I have a safe place to go and positive influences in my life and people that think I'm doing a good job. That was one thing that I really loved about Cheers. And I even feel emotional thinking about that. Cause I haven't thought about that in a long time. Or even maybe this perspective. I loved going to cheer. Feeling like I got to contribute to a greater good. I got to work on a team, and this team that I had thought that I was doing a great job. And there wasn't very often in my life that I heard I was doing a good job. So it was. It was really nice to hear that I was doing a great job. So, anyway, in that night, I did the Cheers, sang the fight song 100 times over. My sweet Auntie Edna watched me the whole time, drove me there and back. And I not only made the $600 that I needed for cheer camp in one night, I made more than that. I remember having more than I needed for the fees to go to cheer camp. And. And when it was all said and done, my aunt went into. I went with my aunt into the casino. She traded in the chips to get the cash, and I was able to pay for cheer camp all on my own. I didn't need my mom to pay for it. And granted, she had financial constraints at the time, too. And, you know, there were a lot of factors going into this, and I just want to share the Story in a sense of, like, there. There's so much that's possible, and sometimes it just. It just takes you believing in your ability to find a way. Maybe the way isn't obvious. Maybe your first thought isn't to go do cheers on the Las Vegas Strip. That's okay. That's. It was. It was one of my first thoughts because my aunt was doing that quite often with her Smurf costume. And I just want you to know, like, no matter what you're going through in life right now, there is possibility. And if you would just allow yourself to focus more on the possibility, let that fighter in you, that relentless part of you come out and help you through this, you'll find solutions. You will think creatively. It just takes a little bit more. I've got this. Instead of I can't do this. I've got this. I've got this. I've got this. And at the end of it all paid for cheer camp, we went. It was in Arizona, really cool place. And then I believe it was the second day, my school got kicked out. All of. All of that, and my school got kicked out, which is a whole nother freaking story. And it was still so worth it. Like, I. I'm so proud of myself for doing that. I'm so proud of myself for getting myself there, for seeing, like, how important it was for me to be with those people and in that experience of cheer camp and being on this team, like, it was so important and I made it work. And I believe that we all have that little piece in us. And again, it comes back down to having the mentality. It starts with what we think. So thinking that we can do it, thinking there's something that we can do, there's a solution to be seen here. Thinking, I've got this. That's how you're going to do it. You're not going to do it because everything is laid out in front of you and all the answers are so clear. You're going to do it because you believe you can. That is why you'll do it. And that's why I made it to cheer camp. That's why I made it on the cheer team. That's why I have this marriage and I've started this business and I have kids and I have broken a lot of generational cycles and healed a lot of my own trauma. And this is a journey that I'm always on, right? It's never over. I just. I just know that I keep going because I think I can. And that's it's just. It's really powerful. So I hope that you start seeing more of how you can do things and that you are capable. And you use this as a funny story to remind you that there is a way. There is a way. When you're willing to see the way, it's there. So I love you dearly and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you for joining me on this week's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and share it. I love spreading the message of how positivity can come in so beautifully to help you through your journey of self discovery and healing. I'm cheering for you. I believe in you and I'll talk to you really soon.