Arienna

A year ago, I decided to join derby. It was an idea that had been kicking around in the back of my head for years. Back when I was tending bar, I met a group of roller girls and seriously wanted to be part of their team... but I live in the US and I didn't have health insurance. And then when I finally had health insurance, I was working too many hours. And then I picked up cello and what if I BROKE something?! I regularly googled roller derby, looked at the pictures of awesome women kicking ass, sighed wistfully and walked away

And then I found a pair of skates at the thrift store in what I thought was my size (spoiler alert, your first skates are probably too big) and decided, why not?! I was frustrated with trying to find women to play on my coed soccer team. I was tired of being one of the only women in my structural engineering department. Tired of being the only girl playing dance games at the arcade. So I packed myself off to tryouts!

I had never skated before.