Travel Team Tryouts (42/365)

I don’t write about derby that much on this blog. Well, at least not proportionately to how much time I spend at roller derby. That’s for a couple of reasons. First, this is mostly a cooking/baking blog so my derby escapades don’t really fall in the same category. Second, I’ve been trying really hard to maintain a life outside of derby which means not talking about it all the time. Except I totally could.

And I’m going to now.

Tonight was travel team tryouts. Now, having been skating for approximately seven months and been actually playing derby for about four months, this seemed a bit of stretch. But I figured, why not? Our last bout was definitely a turning point for me, and any opportunity to get better is probably one I should take. But holy heck, was I intimidated. I tried not to think about too much during the day, but since they sent us the agenda ahead of time, I was sort of obsessing over what they were going to ask us to do. None of it was completely new, but lots of it was exactly the stuff I find to be the hardest.

And it was hard.

I didn’t play my best derby tonight. But I survived. It was a really good learning experience.  The number of encouraging words I got from my teammates and others in the league was amazing. I felt like a deer in headlights, but just hearing people say they were glad I was there was uplifting. So, whatever happens, happens, and I’m okay with that.  

42/365

I was looking at my skates tonight, and it seems like a lifetime ago that I put them on for the first time the day before bootcamp last summer. I’ve worn a hole through the toe of my skates and certainly gotten my money’s worth from my pads. They’re dirty and stinky, but have taken me this far.

Look at those shiny new skates. That was before I knew what I was getting myself into (and I’m still figuring that out). Andrew said tonight that I care more about this sport than any other sports I’ve done in my past. It’s true. It’s the first time I’ve played a team sport. In that what I do on the track directly affects how we, as a team do on the track. Knowing people are relying on me like that is exciting and scary. It makes me want to do the best I can and I’m disappointed when I don’t live up to my own expectations. But more than that, I think I like it because of the community. Our league is full of just plain awesome people. People I want to be surrounded by, people who care about me as a derby player and as a person, and people who I care about too.