Finding a balance in life and roller derby

So I have said it before and I will say it again - my two favorite and most descriptively true roller derby quotes are "roller derby saved my soul" and "roller derby ruined my life."

It has consistently been hard for me to find a balance with roller derby and my life. Being in a league takes up a lot of time and energy, aside from the training to be a great athlete part; the meetings, the event planning, the endless volunteer work, it all takes time.

When I first joined the league I am in, five years ago, I suffocated myself within a year and a half. I was the head of the sponsorship committee, I was doing league work on my lunch breaks, and I was taking time off work during the middle of the week to do things like fly to Las Vegas for potential, yet non-wielding, sponsors. I was skating almost every day either at practice or outside, I wasn't eating right or taking vitamins and protein shakes, I wasn't getting enough sleep, I wasn't doing any cross training or injury prevention, and I hardly ever sat out or missed a practice or a beach skate simply because I was hurt or not feeling good.

And boy did I pay the price for being wreckless. An injury from a fall on a beach skate hospitalized me with staff infection. I had to have surgery and was on an IV for ten days, after which I spent three months having a home nurse come to my house and change my bandage as my leg healed. While all this was going on everything else in my life that I had been ignoring fell apart as well. I lost my job, my living situation fell through, a close family member died.

I ended up being MIA from derby for the next two years. I was still on the message boards and showed up at games now and then, and I was skating on my own at home, but I wasn't going to practice and I had lost touch with everyone. I was too busy trying to get the life that I had let fall apart, back in order.

In the end, everything happens for a reason. As I have worked to get my life back together, I was able to work roller derby into my life plan. I am back in touch with my league and on the teams that I have always wanted to be on. With my first game from both teams out of the way I am looking forward to the rest of this year. I just need to remember to continue to keep a balance between my life and roller derby, so that I never have to be MIA for two years again!

Kali Katt