# Roller Derby as Time Machine

It isn't that I'm old. I mean, I'm getting there, but I wouldn't say I'm necessarily there yet. It's that Roller Derby does this magical (whether it's good magic or bad magic, I haven't figured out yet) thing where while I'm doing it, I feel ten years younger than I am. At least ten years younger. I feel like I perform reasonably well, and I have stamina to last an entire game.

However, after the game/practice/scrimmage, I'm transported ten years into the future, when I'm an old man, with creaky joints and aches in places I didn't know existed.

I'm not saying this to complain. I know I'm not a spring chicken anymore, and I know that there are consequences -- often painful -- for my actions. I just think it's interesting that the second the roller skates go on, the pain goes away, and I shed the years like old skin, only to put it back on along with some extra when play-time is over.