Cheer leaders were and still are the envy of every high school girl even though its not something insecure adolescent girls would ever admit to. They were the “in girls” the popular kids which we hated as much as envied.

And yet the truth is we need those cheer leaders and not just in school. We need them in life.

They may not wear cute little outfits in school colors or wave pom poms about, but we need people who are excited about life, who is in fact a leader of cheerfulness. These are the kind of people whose enthusiasm is contagious and whose positive frame of mind helps us to see the bright and hope filled side of life. They meet life's challenges with a spirit of good cheer. They believe in possibilities no matter how remote those possibilities may appear.

We need these cheerleaders to counteract the gloomy, pessimistic doom sayers. We need them to overcome the fatalistic prognostications that are so prevalent. We ourselves could become such cheerleaders. We don’t need to wear cute little outfits carry pom poms or perform gymnastics. All we need is to cultivate a sunny disposition and a bright out look on life.

It helps if we can maintain a perspective on what goes on around us and focus on the positive elements of life.

I’m a little beyond the time in life where I’d be carrying pom poms and leaping high into the air, but I’ve found a considerable amount of joy in my daily life to be pretty enthusiastic about life in general.

I won’t be wearing a skimpy outfit. More likely i’ll be in jeans and sporting a shirt with a happy slogan on it, but i’ll be the one who points out the colors of the sunrise, the delicate beauty of a flower and the brilliance of the winter stars and encouraging everyone to relish the privilege of being alive.