I know at some point I wanted to be an archaeologist. I think it was around the time of Indiana Jones. I thought that was really cool to just travel and dig up remnants of old civilizations. What else?

I was always really good at writing. I thought maybe I'd become an author, maybe go into publishing. I did major in English in college. I mostly focused on British literature. Niche. Everyone thought, oh, you should be a teacher. That was not really my ambition. I think I really wanted to write. I don't know. I did try to get into some of the writing classes at my college. I backed off and decided to just pursue the literature aspect. I think I'm still a little disappointed in myself, but what are you going to do?

Somebody messaged me that they were starting a roller derby league. I decided to go check it out. It was in this tennis court that had broken glass and leaves all over it. We would sweep it before we did anything. It was a lot of people who didn't know what they were doing.

Roller derby started in 2000 in Texas. It was still like a lot of fishnets — a little crazy and campy, like old-school roller derby — still a beer league.

The old-school TV derby shows — they were on a banked track — supposedly, those were all very choreographed games. That's what we're coached to say when people ask us. We are real. We're not like professional wrestling. I feel like they got rid of the elbows just because they were afraid people were going to break a rib or something, right?

We eventually found a venue, which was nice. We got a lot of people to sign up. I think we played our first game March of 2008, like six months after we started, which is pretty quick considering nobody knew what they were doing.

We played against Connecticut. We had Hudson Valley Horrors. We had Long Island Roller Rebels. We would dress in these outfits. I think at one point we came out and our intros were these big black wings.

Then around 2010, the movie “Whip It” came out. That was a big movie for us. We switched over to athletic apparel because it became a little more important to play well. Every once in a while we'll have a fun bout and wear wacky stuff.

The first three years, for some reason in the fall, I would injure myself pretty seriously. I have a bad right knee. I got injured in the last jam of our last game of the 2008 season. I fractured a bone in my knee, ended up on crutches.

You get one injury, and it snowballs. The following fall, 2009, someone hit me and I ended up partially tearing my MCL. Then that was more crutches and PT. It's always the fall. I don't know, maybe it's a pumpkin thing.

Around that time we all started thinking of ourselves as athletes: This is a sport, maybe we should be cross-training and strength training and doing all that stuff so that we don't injure ourselves. That's really when I started working out outside of derby so that I could keep playing. Knock on wood, I haven't had another knee injury.

Not only is roller derby a great sport and a lot of fun, but it's a very tight-knit community that takes care of their own.

Derby gave me a job, a boyfriend, and a home. Derby is like that. If you need anything, everybody comes together for you. The first time I got injured, I didn't have health insurance, so they threw a big fundraiser with bands and stuff at our after-party space to make money for me. They were good people.

Derby is definitely stress release. I feel like it's something that I can have some pride in. Because I do put in a lot of time and effort. We all do as a team. It's like a bright spot. Plus it's social. Especially now that I'm working from home full-time. I see my dogs and I see my boyfriend. I don't do a lot outside of that except for derby. That's my social time.

We try to be super inclusive. I feel like derby is way more inclusive than the general population. I feel like we were including transgender people, non-binary people, for many years before it became a mainstream thing that people talk about. We're a sport, but we're a fringe sport. We get a lot of people that felt like they didn't belong elsewhere. I feel like we're very much a safe space, especially the two leagues I've been on. It's definitely one big happy family, I would say.

Derby is my happy place.