Remember your first time walking in?

I remember the first time I walked into derby practice.
I was very nervous, and I'm also pretty shy. I was bullied, teased and beaten from grade 1 right through to grade 12, so people made me very very nervous. And although I was 30 years old, I couldn't get past the class stage of the popular and unpopular crowd in my head.
I still saw myself as the loser, and was quiet and hiding in the corner because there was no way the popular crowd would want to be friends with me.

The first friend I made was Vigilante Banshee. She was just so kind and full of life. I drove her home from practice a few times, and picked her up for practice a few times and we got to talking, as you tend to do on drives, and she was the first one I felt truly comfortable around, and encouraged me to keep going and that I was doing well.
The girls that strapped on their skates and zipped around the room, were just so much better then I could ever be. And they laughed and joked with each other and I just couldn't bring myself to do that, I wanted to, I just couldn't!
The second friend I made was Kitty Von Doom. We both have sons around the same age, and we got together for play dates and a tutu making party. She drove with me to my first real bout in Saint John. This is where I began to get to know some of the other girls, like I'd Hit That, Fire Crack'ya and Dii Mented.
Please be aware, they were always very nice and very friendly towards me, it was my insecurities that kept me from really talking to them and getting to know them. Some I had been dealing with for years, and been unable to snap myself out of.
At this bout in Saint John I believe it was Dii Mented that said "I knew you were one of us, I just didn't have the proof yet!"
This comment, believe it or not, helped me to calm down and talk! I began making doors through the walls I constantly built between myself and other people.
Since I did that with derby, it's helped me to do the same in my every day life.
I was once fired from a job a shift and half in because I was "To soft spoken." I was dealing with the public and  they felt when people came in I got shy and they could barely hear me. Something that would shock people that know me now. At the job I am currently at, they would never call me soft spoken, and it is my outgoing personality that makes me good at it, and has made more then one student ask "Can I just deal with Katie from now on." I have the laid back personality of a girl born and raised in the Maritimes, and thanks to Roller Derby, I speak up, smile and look people in the eye. This is something I wasn't able to do before.
Although Vigilante Banshee and Kitty Von Doom are no longer with DRD, I still consider them to be my girls, and miss them dearly. I am thankful I took that step to get out of the house and meet people. And even more thankful that the people I met are so wonderful!