Starting From Scratch

Yesterday was my first set of skating lessons. I headed to Mercer Playground early in the morning, and not once did I think, "What I am doing?"

My plan is to take skating lessons, survive the two remaining Gotham Girls Roller Derby Skills Nights and tryout for a shot-in-the-dark spot on a team. I have no grand illusions that I'll actually make it, but having this mission right now is -- yes I'll say it -- keeping me grounded.

I learned a few things yesterday. For one, my teacher extraordinaire, The Skate Guru, is the real deal. He lives and breathes skating. He's über-cool. He loves his purple.

Quad skating is as ridiculously hard. I wasted my first outdoor lesson comfortably balanced on my inline skates. That mistake will not happen again. I'll be in My Demons for my remaining indoor and outdoor skills lessons, both of which are taught outdoors because of the expanding dearth of indoor rinks in New York.

To learn something new, to learn something properly, you have to force yourself to unlearn what you think you already know. And if you fall, you have to get right back up and roll on.