Roller Derby Retirement Archive

Derby is now and has always been based strongly in DIY culture. “For the skaters, by the skaters” is the creed we all live by. So when I saw the retired skater awards at last year’s Circle City Derby Girls’ end of season party, I was moved. These homemade, highly personalized trophies

This past weekend we had our first Geeks Night Out with Horrible Night. We went skating, since it was also the night of the Race City Rebels fundraiser. And the strangest thing happened. I was surrounded by derby people, and they were calling me by my real name. Now, for those of

Today would have been my two year derbyversary. In celebration of my first derbyversary last year, I posted about the things derby had taught me. Things like appreciating my body and what it can do, spacial awareness, and the importance of taking care of yourself. Things that eventually led me to initially

I can tell you the exact moment I not only accepted my derby retirement, but actually began to enjoy it. It was at Spring Roll. It had been a rough weekend for me. Being around derby had been rough as a whole, and this was a whole weekend of it. But my

Part three of my series on retiring from roller derby. Same disclaimer as my post on Isolation/Depression applies. I promise the next entry is much more positive. This is just chronicling my emotional journey. Also, “My Emotional Journey” is the name of my Brand New cover band. As I stated in my

This is the third part in my series about retiring from roller derby. I want to say now, that this is going to make some of you upset. And for that, I apologize. Just realize I mean nothing personal by this, and it’s just the way I felt/feel. I know I took

The second part in my series about retiring from roller derby. This will be a short post, because it was a short phase. Guilt. Guilt from stepping down. Guilt from not being there. Guilt from not being a practice. Guilt for not helping out like you once did. I had said I

Retirement. It’s something we don’t talk about in derby. We all think we’re going to play forever. But we’re not, we’ll all have to retire at some point. It’s the elephant in the locker room. But people change. Careers change. Injuries happen. You may get to retire on your own terms. You