The Price of Derby

Derby requires sacrifices off all kinds. There's the monetary, the physical and the emotional.

Monetarily, it costs me $30 per week to attend two practices in gas. Sometimes I make three a week, for the most part, I usually make 10 practices a month, which amounts to $150 a month in gas. Add in our dues and you got $180 a month. Add in lost wages of $240 for quitting work early every other Thursday for practice and my grand monetary sacrifice is $420 a month. This totals $5,040 per year. This total, of course does not include equipment or other expenses.

Then you have the physical sacrifice. Being a 41 year old skater, things just don't heal as easy. It's much harder to get up in the morning. Every bone in your body creaks. You experience the multitude of bruises and injuries. You are constantly playing catch up to the young skaters.

Lastly, you have the emotional sacrifice. This is the one that I am having the most difficulty with lately. I have never in my life suffered from such a low self esteem as now. I feel humiliated weekly, degraded, looked down upon and sometimes, just made to feel like shit. It's my own fault. I allow it.

So, I add up the monetary, physical and emotional sacrifices and I ask myself... Why do you put yourself through all this? The jury is still out on that answer.