O Captain My Captain in Transition

The captain of my roller derby team has just sent me a very nice message. Currently, I’m on the B team and not eligible to play in any big official games such as the British Champs. Our B team is very small and we’ve only ever had enough players to play ONE official game to get us in the UK rankings. The rest of the time, we’re just playing friendly mixed games around the country, which can be demoralising when we’ve got nothing to really work towards. To get onto the A team, you have to come to a certain number of practices each month and really show them that you’re capable with your skills, drive and determination. Get yourself noticed, and then the board can vote to promote you (the head of training, the team captain, the coach etc.) Well, the captain has just sent me this message, verbatim.

”Hey lovely, I just wanted to tell you that I have had a couple of conversations about you in the last few weeks in a good way, as we have noticed you are really stepping up at practice. I have noticed more aggression and drive and it’s exciting to see. I just wanted to send some encouragement as I know this must be such a difficult time for you but I’m impressed with you still coming along and really working hard in drills and scrims. So just wanted to drop you a line to say keep up the good work and that you are very much on my radar as one to watch. xx”

This is so good to see. It’s difficult sometimes to know if you’re improving or not as the improvements are usually very small and incremental, so it’s fantastic to get the recognition like this. I know a lot of the “aggression” she mentions comes from me having somewhere to release my anger during my grief, but I do hope I can channel it and carry on using it to help me improve my game next year.

2016 can suck it, 2017 is going to be my year. First my promotion, now this message to give me the extra push to get myself onto the A team. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket while karma has decided to be on my side for a change?