Sunday, June 11, 2017

Fresh Meat Fears : The Beginning.


Fresh meat it's a term that if you have never heard of before, you'll quickly learn it when you decide to join the exhilarating world of roller derby.

It all started with an event on Facebook. You know, one of those events that pops up out of nowhere. You have no idea why or how it would show up on your Facebook feed.
Oh maybe it was a mutual friend of a friend. Maybe it was from that cousin twice removed, that posted it. 

Either way however you got there you were led to the Two Rivers Roller Derby's meet and greet event page. I mulled around the idea for a few weeks, interested in the event of course, I promised myself I would go. Do something out of the ordinary, do something unfamiliar, step outside of that recently built box. I don't know about everybody else but I have social anxiety and I tend to runaway from things that are unknown; similar to a child running away from that creepy birthday party clown.

 Meet and Greet Night

I was overwhelmed with so many different emotions, if  nausea was considered one, it was the winner. There was a large group of people, faces I had never seen before. To me, it seemed like everyone was holding it together but me. After scanning the room, I realized that I wasn't the only one that was an awkward light shade of green, so I settled into a chair and listened to what these strangers were talking about. Some of it is a blur to be quite honest but I think most of us got the gist of what we were being told. Although, (in my head) it eventually sounded like some sort of chant:

JOIN DERBY!!! YOU WILL LOVE IT!!! WE WILL TEACH YOU ALL THE THINGS!!! 
This is so weird, why are they so nice??  Is this some sort of cult??  Where do I sign up? 


Of course none of those things happened there was no chicken sacrifice, or contract to sign with blood on the dotted line, not even chanting; but what did happen, really made the soon to be Fresh Meats not only feel welcome, but very excited. 

You see, it was the feeling of home ,family, friendship, encouragement, and unity that really drew a lot of us in. It was very clear during the short time we spent at the meet and greet. These people weren't full of crap. They really did mean what they were saying, and they were encouraging each and every one of us that sat there (some of us staring hopelessly at them) to join and become even  better and stronger versions of ourselves, with their help.

Some vets said Joining derby was the greatest decision of their lives, and it would be ours too if we gave it a chance. Some talked about their journeys, others briefly spoke about what the requirements were with jobs, practices, and other derby-amazing things. It was a lot to take in but despite the abundance of information, several people signed up.

                                        Fast Forward

Our 1st practice with the vets. 
Its been a little over four months since our journey began and the group of amazing humans that joined that day, are now rookies and if you ask any one of them, if they are glad that they joined, you will get similar answers. It was one of the best decisions they ever made and each of them will  have several reasons why. We intentionally joined a derby team and unexpectedly gained an amazing extended family.

I know for me even though I am still a rookie that is working towards my skills assessments, derby has been one of the best things I've ever done for myself.


Just some of the Freshies supporting the vets at the 1st bout of the 2017 season. 
If you read my teammate Carnage's blog, you can read further as to some of the reasons why so many people feel that way.

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