By Jessica Settlemire
Being a freshman in high school isn’t the easiest time in a teenager’s life, and definitely not easy for a girl. The biggest thing on a Friday night in Beaufort during the fall was high school football with packed stands, body-painted boys and girls going google-eyed for them, but not me.
I was nervous about messing up the first cheer as a varsity cheerleader. It was already a big deal to be a freshman on a varsity team; it would have been a bigger deal to mess up.  As we took off our warm-ups, picked up our run-through and pom poms, the nerves kicked in. Running on the field was OK; you really can’t mess that up. But after the run-through, time for cheer number one! I froze! Not! I knew all the cheers and quarter after quarter it became easier and more comfortable. By the end of the fourth quarter I had finally seen what Friday nights in high school were all about and had found my place in school.
Though my mom wouldn’t let me go out afterwards, it was all good. She always said, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight”, very true by the way. I became addicted to cheering on the sidelines of Friday night football games and those are my most memorable times in Beaufort.

<em>This moment in Beaufort’s history is an excerpt from the book “Beaufort ... Then and Now,” an anthology of memories compiled by Holly Kearns Lambert. Copies of this book may be purchased at Beaufort Book Store.  For information or to contribute your memory, contact Holly at lowcountrymemories@hotmail.com or beaufortmemories@gmail.com.</em>