Roller derby in my eyes is a team sport with a bunch of girls who were always known as aggressive, tattoos, colored hair, the one's that you can spot out a mile away in highschool. I have the aggression but when it comes down to my outer image most people don't believe me when I say I'm a roller derby girl.
They call me The Dude. I'm only 5'0 tall and weigh probably about 113lbs...in other words I'm tiny. I'm not covered in tattoos and my hair was always Blonde or brown. I was always into punk rock music, going to shows, and moshing in the pit. I'm an aggressive girl with a lot of adrenaline pupping through. I have a lot of anger issues from the past but then again most of us do.
I started roller skating at the age of like 4. My family and I went roller skating at fountain valley and at the age of 4, I couldn't stand up on skates to save my life. I was girly girl growing up. If it wasn't a dress I wouldn't wear it. I was into barbies and whole disney princess themes. My mom started putting me in rollerskating classes on saturday mornings and for some reason I wouldn't ever leave the floor I'd skate the group class and move up quitly to the next upper level and then I'd skate the entire session from like 12pm-4pm. I started getting pretty good and my mom put me into private lessons and then I started artistic roller figure skating and did competitions. I was so into it. I did dance, freestyle (jumps and spins), Figures (tracing the circles), to pairs, to team dance, to creative solo, you name it I did it. We'd travel to fresno once a year did regionals and then go to nations everywhere where it was somewhere in Florida or Nebraska. My highschool schedule was insane. About 3 times a week I'd wake up at 4:30 in the morning go to the rollerskating rink, have a lesson and practice from 5am-7am, then go to school then straight from school I'd go right to the rink skate from 3:30-6:30 and forced my mom to let me stay from session from 6:30-8:30 and sometimes have a lesson from 8:30pm-10:30pm and due it all over the next day. I didn't like highschool too much and never went to parties and didn't really have friends, I didn't have time nor really understood the people at my school.
Towards 16 years old I kinda got sick of figure skating. Coaches were all about winning, winning winning, I was just in it for the sport and passion and if I didn't take first place I got a pretty mean lecture that left me in tears, So finally I quit and got into jam skating (break dancing/hip hop dancing on skates) at like 17 years old. When I was about 18 years old my figure skating coach started up a roller derby team and it was 18+. It had all the local session skaters in it so i gave it a shot. There were A LOT of girls on the team and I quit that team after 2 months due to the girls being competetive and it didn't feel like a team sport to me, I felt like i was competing my own team.
The team split up and later on 5 girls formed a new team called The Renegade Rollergirls OC. I worked at the roller rink and did clean up everytime they came in. I was really cool with the captain who was on the last team before split up and me and her were always cool. Well Somehow I got talked into practicing with them one night and next thing you know. Im The Dude #101 on the renegade rollergirls.
So being a nobody turned into me being a rollergirl, The dude. It felt amazing cause I have more balance on my rollerskates then I do on my 2 feet due to all the effort and time with my figure skating. Derby in my eyes really helped me out. I stick up for myself now. I have friends, and People don't doubt me anymore cause of my size. My mosh pitting days just feels like roller derby but with rollerskates on, the way I feel in that pit-freedom, strongness, like you feel good, it's exactly how I feel when I'm on that floor during derby.
It doesn't matter on how big you are, how strong you are, how tatted up you are, it matters on how much heart and effort you put into it.
I hope a lot of girls who are scared of the sport cause its known for the aggressive stronger woman step up and work hard to just do it. My image of me on that rink I hope encourage those to just do it. You want it, then go do it. It takes a thousand practices, a thousand falls, to get where you need to be. But there's never a word as perfect, no matter how good you are you always need to practice, you always have to put more and more effort each time. There's no such thing as the word Can't, I think I can is all that you can really tell yourself.
For first time I have a team that is just unbelievably talented, sincere, strong, caring, and they all do it with heart. Roller derby is a tough sport, its scary, you never know what's gonna happen till it's done and your already on the ground. Don't ever give up you fall you get back up and keep going till that whistle blows. I am a rollergirl, I'll always be a rollergirl. I'm the dude #101, and I'll always be the dude #101.
