A New Life

Every entry in The Rollergirl Project is a small glimpse into the life of a derby girl.  This entry is by Magpie who skates for the Lake City Roller Dolls.  More pictures of her can be found at Cory's website

My name is Megan Dinse and I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and a friend. I love animals and kids and consider myself to be a compassionate human being. I also love to skate. I am a derby girl. You can call me Magpie.
Derby entered my life in February 2010, at just the right time. I had just found out that my husband of seven years wanted a divorce. My life as I knew it had dropped out from under me. I was in shock and I didn’t know how to move forward. And then roller derby knocked on my door… I’m talking with a friend when she tells me she’s going to watch a co-worker skate in a derby bout. My mind flashes back to sitting in the movie theater watching “Whip It” and thinking how bad-ass Ellen Paige’s character became. I tell my friend to send me the details of the bout as this is my chance to watch roller derby for real. She sent me something even better – a flyer she’d come across that said a roller derby team was starting up in my town. OMG…this was my chance to become like Ellen Paige!!! I honestly remember thinking about it and asking myself, “What have I got to lose?” I’ve never been athletic and have never played a sport in my life, but roller derby sounded exciting and daring and was definitely out of my comfort zone. I figured this sad, confused, crying-mess I’d turned in to could use a change of pace and the chance to get out some aggression.
So I went to the informational meeting. I looked around the table at the ten or so girls and saw that they weren’t all super tiny and athletic looking. I came right out and said I’d never played a sport before, unless you counted watching TV which I’d become quite good at. Some of them laughed but no one told me to get the hell out, so I figured that was a good sign. A few days later, I went to the local skating rink and put on my first pair of speed skates. I’d decided that if I fell flat on my face the first time around, perhaps this wouldn’t be the sport for me. I hugged the side of the wall and broke a sweat after only a few laps around – but I did not fall! A few days after that, I gathered up some friends and attended my first roller derby bout to watch the Fort Wayne Derby Girls. We sat down in what I have now come to know as suicide seats! I  was in very close view of these chicks in their fishnets and booty shorts and I loved it. Looking around at the crowd, I saw parents and friends wearing shirts in support of their favorite derby girl. I was filled with immediate excitement at the thought of my friends and family cheering for me. I was already envisioning my mom with a shirt that said ‘Magpie’s mom’! Halfway into watching the bout, I turned to my friends and said, “I’m doing this thing.”
About a week later, I attended the first practice of what has now become the Lake City Roller Dolls. Within a few weeks, I was voted captain of the league. At 31 years of  age, not only was I joining my first sport ever, but I was voted captain…of ROLLER DERBY! I was the kid in middle school who hated gym class and would stand in the outfield during softball and pray that no one hit the ball in my direction. I can say with certainty that this was not something I had ever envisioned for myself. But now I can’t imagine my life without it.
During the most difficult year of my life, roller derby has been a source of positivity in so many ways. First and foremost, I believe derby has helped me to find myself again and reconnect with who I truly am as a person. I think somewhere along the path of my past, I lost a little bit of who I was. But since joining derby, I feel like I am a better version of myself. Roller derby has also given me the opportunity to spend time with amazing women – ladies that I never would have met otherwise. My teammates have become my family and some of my best friends. I have a derby wife whom I love dearly. I will do anything I can to support these women and I believe they’d do the same for me. Roller derby has also given me other things – the chance to volunteer and help out in my community, the opportunity to step up as a leader and help build a team, and the chance to be an athlete and get in shape.
When people ask how I got into roller derby, I tell them it was as if it fell from the sky and landed in my life at the exact time I needed it. I don’t believe the timing was coincidence. At any other point in my life, I probably would not have attended that first meeting. But the opportunity arose just as I was opening the door to a new life. Derby is so much a part of my life now and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Roller derby helped me to save myself. For that I will always be grateful.