tuck puck love

So, I'm not the most adventurous girl on the planet. 

I know. You can take a minute to lift your jaw off the floor. My close friends and family are probably shocked at that statement. Maren not adventurous? The girl who would rather sit on her couch and read a book than go and do something social? The girl who dropped out of church basketball because her sister got more recognition than her? The girl who has at least one dramatic fall every winter - usually on the ice? 

Yah, that girl. 

I don't often do much that is publicly out of my comfort zone. So, when I got the email about Women's Tripod Hockey last month, I deleted it immediately. And then I couldn't stop thinking about it. 

I wanted to play hockey. 

So, I dug through my deleted emails and read it again. Sign ups. Used gear sale. Try outs. And I was in. I can't really describe the feeling. I just had this overwhelming urge to do something out of my comfort zone. To do something I would never in my life do anywhere else or at any other time. 

And so I did. And I got two of my friends to do it with me. I signed up, bought my gear, went to the draft party and then to my very first practice. Mind you, I hadn't been on an ice rink since I was probably 13 years old. Let alone on a rink, dressed in full hockey pads, holding a stick. 

At tryouts, the first thing we did was learn how to fall. Seriously. And then we learned how to skate forward. And then backward. And then how to stop. And then the rules of the game - icing, off sides and all. I'm an okay forward skater, a ridiculous backward skater, a professional faller and a horrendous stopper. Mostly I just spin in a circle until I come to a halt. I have zero finesse on the ice. I can barely hit the puck. And yet, I have a grin on my face for 90% of the time I'm out there. I'm already more daring than I imagined I would be and it's invigorating. Each game I've skated harder and fallen more, but the risk is worth the reward. It honestly has been so incredible to try something new, something so foreign, something I'm definitely not good at. 

We've only had two games, and I already know it is going to be a highlight of my time here in New Hampshire. Something I'll look back on for a long time. Something I'll be proud of. And hopefully something that will give me courage to get off my couch and out of my comfort zone a little more often. 

Plus, how many 30 year old stay-at-home moms can say they're hockey players?  Exactly.