"Do you miss playing?"

I get asked this question a lot.

I was never a sports person growing up - orienteering was my activity of choice - but I roller skated a lot as a little kid (a picture of one of my first roller skates), and I was generally sort of weird growing up.

When I started playing back in 2008, roller derby was more about being weird and rollerskating than about athletics.  It was a perfect fit for me. 

In the next six years, though, derby changed, and it became harder and harder for me to keep up with the athleticness that was being required. I started playing when I was 35 - that's a lot of years of inertia to overcome.

In 2013-14, the fates conspired (through surgery and knee shenanigans) to keep me off skates for about six months. Then a few months after that, I found out that the shoulder issues I'd been having for a while were actually due to a torn rotator cuff, and my doctor couldn't recommend me returning to play after that.

All of this is a very long way around of saying I do miss playing, quite a lot, but I wouldn't be able to play the game the way it's being played now.