#23 - get published - check
Shortly after creating this list, one of the roller derby magazines (yes there are more than one - and by that I mean there are two) was seeking stories about the experience of being a new skater (also known as being “fresh meat,” in case joining derby wasn’t sufficiently intimidating on its own). #23’s inclusion on my list peer-pressured me into submitting something hastily thrown together, just eking in by the deadline. It was rushed and not at all my best work, but I was handed probably my best chance at accomplishing that goal so I went for it.
Earlier this year, a year and a half after sending it in (and at least a year after forgetting I had done so) once I had already decided my derby career was over, an editor contacted me to get a photo to accompany the piece. I felt like I was cheating by not telling her that I had since stopped skating, but I had an item to check off my list and had made no other attempts to accomplish this particular one, so I kept that to myself. (I mean, it’s not like retiring invalidated my experience or anything, but because I have weird guilt issues I worry about things like this.)
I’m pretty sure that 95% of my tumblr/Twitter/Facebook status updates are superior in quality and amusement to what actually ended up getting published, but when you’re working on accomplishing 101 tasks of varying intensity, you’re going to take what you can get with some of them.
It’s not The New Yorker but it counts just the same.
