On the 21st of February, 2019, I was able to go to Hawaii with one of my best friends, Kayla. We’ve known each other for 9 years, and we’re basically like sisters. In fact, we’re even both Russian. The reason we traveled to Hawaii was because we had a cheer competition there. Unfortunately, my family couldn’t go because my Grandpa had cancer, and he was living with us. My family had to stay home to take care of him. Honestly, I’m glad they didn’t go, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to go with my best friend, her mom and sister. They are pretty much my second mom and sister. Anyways, I’m going to get on with the trip now, so enjoy!
Day 1:
*Beep, Beep, Beep*. Oh my goodness, it's 5:30 in the morning, and I never wake up this early! I think to myself. Wait, it's time to go to Hawaii? Hooray! I can’t wait to get there, and swim in the clear blue ocean. I’m also really nervous though, because I feel like I’m going to forget something, and I really don’t want to forget anything to do with my cheer stuff.
“Sasha, time to get up”, says my mother.
“I know mom, I had an alarm you didn’t need to tell me”, I replied.
“Well hurry up, were leaving in an hour.” I’m the happiest person alive right now, it doesn’t even feel real. I'm supposed to go to school today and tomorrow, but instead I’ll be in Hawaii with my best friend.
My mom pulls up next to the drop off spot at the airport, and Kayla, Megan, Kayla’s sister, and Jeanette, Kayla's mom, get out of the car, as I hug and say my goodbyes to my mom. I love airports so much, and flying. Sometimes I get bored, but it’s just so much fun for some reason.
Wow, look at that view. I’m sitting in my seat, looking out my window at the beautiful clear waters of Hawaii. Hawaii, wow I can’t believe I’m even here right now. That flight sucked though, because it was way too long. We get off the plane, and Kayla and I are bouncing around. We have so much energy, and can’t wait to get to the hotel, and go swimming.
As soon as we get to our hotel on Waikiki beach, Kayla and I go explore. We find a lagoon and some of our friends. For the rest of the night we take it easy, and just hang around the lagoon and beach.
Day 2:
“Come on guys get up, we have to be at Hanauma Bay soon”, Jennette tells Kayla and I, who are sleeping on the pull out couch. Today is our one free day in Hawaii. The only thing we have to do for cheer is practice, but that's later in the evening. We also have a team dinner.
We all ride in this van that picked us up at the hotel, and is taking us to the snorkeling place. I love driving in Hawaii, because it's so peaceful, and there's so many things to look at and see.
When we get down to the beach, Kayla and I see some of our friends, Sophia and Andrea, who are sisters. The rest of the time at the beach was spent on snorkeling and taking photos, like any other teenage girls would do.
“Hey you're not supposed to be on the coral”, some random lady tells us. Coral? That looks like rocks. My friends and I are standing on things that look like rocks. I guess it might be coral, but I mean we didn’t know that.
Right when we get back to the hotel, we get ready for practice. We’re going to be late, which is not good. Megan and I are on the same team, 3.2. We all start running and we can’t find how to get there. We see a shortcut, and all we have to do is jump over a fence, and we’ll be there.
“Guys, no, don’t go that way we should just go around”, Megan says.
“It’s fine, I can see everyone from our gym”, Kayla replies. Kayla and I go and jump over the fence, as Megan Goes around. We make it over just fine, get to practice right on time, and about 10 minutes later, we see Megan walking over.
“Told you so”, Kayla says to her.
We just finished practice, and now we’re headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. All we have is an hour before we go to dinner. The dinner is just for the athletes, so Kayla’s mom doesn’t go. After we’re all finished getting ready, we walk over to the hotel that we’re all meeting at, to walk over to the restaurant. Kayla and I walked with Andrea and Sophia. We were messing around, and I told Sophia to push Andrea in the bush, because Andrea pushed Sophia.
“Ok do it now”, I say to Sophia. Sophia pushes Andrea into this tall bush with lots of leaves, and Andrea falls all the way into the bush. All you could see was her feet, and everyone started laughing.
When we get the restaurant, the four of us all sit together. We ordered lemonade, and as soon as we got them, Sophia knocked hers over.
“Oh my god Sophia”, Kayla said. We all started laughing again. During dinner, we just talked and laughed about stupid things. Once we were ready to go, Sophia put on her jacket, and then her hand hit her drink a second time, and it spilled everywhere.
Day 3:
“Girls time to get up!” Jenette tells us. It’s 8:30, and we have to be at the convention center in an hour and a half. So, it’s time to get a move on, and get ready for our competition. I’m excited, because I love competing, and it's my favorite part of cheer. It just feels so amazing to be on that stage smiling, tumbling, and stunting. My favorite part of our routine currently is the stunt where I’m the flyer. Two people throw me up as I hold on to a girl in the middle hands, do a front flip over her, and land in the other people’s hands.
After we’re done getting ready, we head over to the convention center to get our hair done there. Doing our hair for cheer is so difficult, so we usually just have someone else do it. Once we are done doing our hair, we head over to the warm ups, and start stretching and warming up all our tumbling and stunting.
“5, 6, 7, 8 hang ten”, everyone says as we’re on the stage. I hear people in the front of the stage cheering for us, and it’s the best feeling in the world. Here we go!
“Girls you all did amazing”, our coach tells us as we exit the stage to go see our parents. We really did do amazing.
“Hey, do you guys all want to go over to the mall?” someone from my team asks.
“Sure”, Megan and I say. About 9 of us head over to the mall, to get some food and relax.
When we get back to the hotel, Kayla and I change into our bathing suits, and put some shorts over them. As we head down to the lagoon, we see some of the little girls from our gym. They tag along, and we all go swimming, and do stunts. At one point, we got one of these big byclec things in the water, and we all got on it. It started sinking, since there were so many of us getting on.
We get back to the hotel from swimming, and just chill for the rest of the night. It was a tiring day, and Kayla has to compete tomorrow again. However, Megan and I’s team won’t.
Day 4:
This is our last full day in Hawaii, and I’m pretty sure Kayla and I are going to cry, when we have to leave. We love Hawaii so much, especially all the swimming we get to do. This morning, I helped Kayla do her hair, as she put on her makeup. I just threw on some shorts, and a t-shirt, with my bathing suit underneath. It’s pretty hot today.
As we drive over to the convention center, I look out the windows, and think about how much fun we’re going to have at the luau tonight.
“Here you guys are”, the Lyft driver says to us.
“Thank you”, we all say back to him as we get out of the car.
Once Kayla is done competing, we wait around for her awards. My awards were yesterday, and we got 1st place. I can’t wait to get back to the hotel, and go swimming again.
When we get back to the hotel, Kayla gets her bathing suit, and Megan and I are already in our bathing suits, so we don’t have to. Kayla’s team planned to go to the beach all together, and Megan and I’s team wanted to go to this cool pool at one of the hotels by Waikiki beach. At the hotel, we swim in the pool, and the water slide they have. Some point while we were in the hot tub, these two boys got in the hottub and we start talking to them. It was really funny, because my one friend Zoey and I kept laughing. At the end of it all, we all followed them on Tik Tok, and they followed us back (I still follow one of them to this day).
Megan and I head back to the hotel to get ready for the luau. On the way up, we run into Kayla, and so we walk up together. Once we get into the hotel room, we quickly take turns taking showers, and getting ready to go.
After we’re done, we hurry out to the spot we’re supposed to get picked up by this bus that takes us to the luau.
When we’re on the bus, the driver talks about all the food that will be at the luau, and mentions something that sounded like “boys.” Kayla and I start laughing, because it was really funny. It turns out it’s called “poy”, not “boys”.
At the luau, we take photos, because it’s right on the beach, and it’s sunset time. Once we are done doing that, we go get these really good drinks, and food. After we all finish our food, the real part starts. The people dance on stage, and at one point, when they offer the girls and women to come dance on stage, I drag Kayla with me, and hula dance there, showing us two. When the boys went on to dance, it was so funny, because they were messing around.
It’s now time to leave, and Kayla and I are so sad, because that means when we get to the hotel, we have to go to be, and our trip to Hawaii will be basically over.
Day 5:
Today is the day we have to leave, and I really don’t want to go. I just want to stay here forever, and go swimming, cliff diving, and more fun things. We only have about 2 hours before we have to leave, so Kayla, Megan, and I, all head down to the beach to get our last swim in. As we’re heading down, we see a rainbow, and a few minutes later, it turns into a double rainbow. I take a few pictures, as I’m in awe of it.
After we get back from our last swim in Hawaii waters, we take showers and pack everything up. We then head down to the gift shop, so I can get some presents for my family. For my dad, I get some Hawaii t-shirts, as if he doesn't have enough. For my mom, I choose a Hawaii smelling candle, and some lip gloss that has flowers inside. Lastly for my brother, I get him a few keychains, because he loves to put them on his backpack.
We’re now sitting on the plane, and taking in the last views of Hawaii, as we fly away back to our houses.
Due to the time change, it’s dark when we arrive home, which sucks.
“Oh my god, they got the bid”, Jenette says. In cheer, you can get bids to big competition, and for Kayla’s team they were trying to get a bid to get to Florida, and compete at Summit. Kayla starts crying in tears of joy as we tell the rest of the teammates that we’re on the plane.
As my dad drives us all back home, we tell him about all the fun adventures we had. I tell him how much I already miss it, and want to go back. I mean last night we were just at a luau enjoying Hawaii air.