Hey, Wait... I Never Asked To Be Teacher's Pet!!

I know it sounds like I'm bitching a lot about the old days, but let me just tell you:
Roller Derby brought a light into my life like I'd never known before.

And I cherish many a fond memory!

But there's been a lot of heartbreak side by side with each one.

Many people tend to gloss over the hard earned lessons of their experience, but I find that stuff just as valuable/worthy of acknowledgment.

So here's another story from the 2004 time period:

As you know, I was constantly excited/hyper and starting to annoy people with the combination of that and my growing potential as a skater.

One thing that certainly didn't help with this was that my clearly unintuitive coach started picking me out as an example. Like, in every drill.

Side Note About My Blog:

My history is intertwined with a lot of other people's. And I'll be telling the flattering and the unflattering. When a story is... unfavorable towards the person, I'll be leaving out/making up fake ass names for them. 

Now, this isn't something that I noticed at first.

I was so obsessed with getting better all the time, that if the coach paid any attention to me at all, I snapped to attention like a low level recruit!

But eventually I saw a direct connection between being used as an example all the time... and getting a bunch of snotty comments.

I don't think many of those comments were meant to be heard by me, but they were.

The weird thing about being young is not understanding basic stuff like boundaries and self expression.

Why couldn't I just tell the coach,
"Stop making an example of me all the time, it's embarrassing" ??

Why couldn't I just tell other skaters,
"Hey, I know I'm young and annoying, but I still look up to you so don't be a jerk"??

I don't know... I just couldn't say it at the time. 

I guess that's just how you learn.

If you do any coaching, can I  give you some advice???

Spread the love around!

Make examples out of everyone for different reasons. Young me from the past thanks you!

Have a super rad day today! Here's a song you'll be lucky if you're not singing in your sleep!

And don't forget these little guys!