You gotta do what makes you happy! For me it’s roller skating…

I can still remember the first time I saw roller skates.

I was 5 years old and we were driving through Canberra on a family holiday. I saw another kid stumbling along a suburban path near our holiday house, and thought it looked like so much fun! I knew I wanted a pair.

I was blessed with my first pair of strap-on skates for my 6th birthday. I loved them so much I wore them out, upgrading to better set of strap-ons the following year!

When I was 12 I got my first pair of white boots, and they were never off my feet. I can remember skating around the streets of Eastwood shopping precinct on a Saturday morning while my mum was working. The mulit level carpark, McDonalds, The Shopping Arcade. No area was out of bounds in those days!

When the Carlingford Big Roller finally opened, it was Friday night skate, boys, and The Pizza Hut afterwards. They were fun days! I even had my first driving lesson in the skating rink carpark!

Skating has never completely left my life. When I had the chance to take up roller derby in 2012, I knew I had to do it! It’s a crazy, full contact sport, full of action, athleticism, exhilaration, fun, and a real chance of injury. I escape twice a week into this parallel universe, and it gives me so much joy!

There’s nothing quite like doing something you love is there? Roller skating makes me happy.