My name is Annie, I like cheetahs and chocolate. I take pictures when no one is looking. I yell because everyone is whispering. If I happen to break into song your ears just might bleed, and I dance even though I have two left feet.....

"1.You've got to take that nice girl, mothering thing and put it in a box before you come to practice. Put it in a box and leave it at the door. You can pick it up again when you leave, but you can't have it in here. You can't have it on the track.
2.Make a list of all the times you were screwed over. Write out what happened and how it made you feel. Keep that list in your skate bag. While you're gearing up get it out and read it. Then bring those feelings out onto the track.
3.You aren't doing anyone any favors by being nice. You aren't learning how to hit at your best when you're worried about other girls. And other girls aren't learning how to take a good hit. You are robbing yourself and your sisters of being a better player when you come on to the track with fear. Get over it. Get over yourself.
4.Um, whatever, grow a pair.
5.You think that some random bitch on another team or another league is going to give a shit about you? You ain't that big. You certainly ain't that tough. You better figure out a way to get tough or get rolled over. Those are your choices.
6.Ask someone to slap you. Open handed and hard. That will change your outlook.
7.You don't need to be everyone's friend. You are here to do a job. Do your fucking job or get off the court. Knock bitches down or go sit in the audience. It's your choice. You can play nice and have beers after the bout. Until then. Hit, hit, hit.
8.Yeah, I had that too. And then I broke a bone. I don't have that issue any more.
9.You remember that boss or that ex or that instructor who totally fucked you over? They're all playing on the other team. Nows your chance. Use that.
10.I don't talk to anyone before a bout. I imagine the hits. I go over drills and imagine doing them perfectly. Every girl here knows the risks of the sport. You aren't so important that you are going to effect whether a girl gets hurt or not. You don't have that power. Learn to play the game as well as you can. Worry about you and let them worry about them. Just play the game."






"I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know ... that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow?" ~Ernest Becker