Tenderized Meat.

Last night I was given a certificate.
This certificate, the one over there. To the right. Yup that's the one.
Signifies, for us with DRD anyway, that we are no longer Fresh Meat. We have passed all the minimum skills, all we can do now is try to get better at what we know, and teach ourselves a few fancy yet useful tricks during the rest of our Derby careers.
This brought to mind the question, if I am no longer Fresh Meat, then what? Most people would answer, a derby girl. However even while I was Fresh Meat I still considered myself to be a derby girl, I had the same aches and bruises, so why limit myself?
After some careful consideration I have decided I, and the rest of the girls who also received this certificate are Tenderized Meat. We have been beaten, dropped, flung, fallen, broken, bloody, bruised, skate raped, skate sodomized, ridden like a horse (lol Banshee), and are still standing, but perhaps a little less cocky then when we began.
When you begin you do drill after drill after drill. Week after week of the same thing over and over. And you begin to think "I got this! Can we move on!"
Then the new stuff begins, and you become very very thankful that you did those drills week after week after WEEK!
Any illusions you had, that this was easy, is gone! It's hard work, watching, trying to help and hinder at the same time, and most importantly trying to stay standing while you do it.
It's a long journey, that is not even close to done for me. I've passed the first test, Yaaaay me!
I made the team! Yaaay me again!
Now I gotta get better and work harder for myself and my team.

And as a side note. I love my JUKES! HOLY CRAP what a difference!