Desperately Seeking Skating

In 1985, Get into the Groove was the #1 hit from Desperately Seeking Susan. I was 9 years old and Madonna-obsessed. My parents would take my little sister and I to the roller rink on the weekends. It was the closest we'd get to cool growing up in Lexington, Kentucky.

Driving to the rink, we'd pass through an endless expanse of farmland, horse fields, smalltown suburbia. Phil Collins was always on the radio, and I liked Phil Collins. His songs were about adult feelings, anthemic and meaningful. But I loved Madonna.

Her lyrics "Live out your fantasy here with me" perfectly captured that feeling I felt walking into the roller rink. We'd pull into the big parking lot of the Champ's roller rink on Old Circle Road. It's not there anymore, but the big brick building is. It was my favorite place in the world.

With a home perm teased into a high side ponytail, I'd enter the double doors of the roller rink with the confidence of the most popular girl in high school, even though I was a 4th grader.

Skate bag slung over my shoulder, I strode through from the sunny exterior into the dark and neon lit excitement inside. The slow-mo strobe lights from the rink met me at the door to spotlight my grand entrance. This was my "Pretty in Pink" prom, my Molly Ringwald meets Madonna moment.

I felt cool, especially with a big hunk of bubble gum in my mouth, always in rotating flavors of watermelon, strawberry, and grape. And I was good at blowing bubbles.

Skating the rink felt dark and wild. The music was loud, and the songs were songs I didn't hear at home, songs I heard my older cousins play on summer vacations like The Police, Men at Work, Culture Club, and Tears for Fears.

When it was time for backwards skate, I'd bravely stride out on the rink while others exited, only to push myself backward in whatever way I thought was good enough to stay out there. My confidence as a kid was built on moments like these.

But as I got into middle school and high school, I stopped roller skating. It was less popular, I got into sports, student council, smoking weed, and then college.

I really didn't think much about skating until June of 2021 when at the height of the COVID pandemic, outdoor rollerskating became an Instagram sensation. Watching new videos of people rollerskating and grooving to music rocketed me back in time.

It was like a portal to myself, to a different time, to another version of myself who I hadn't thought about in a long time. It was then that I bought my first pair of skates since I was a kid and have been back to skating ever since.

Now in my late 40s, I see people of all ages who love to skate. It's an uplifting community of humanity taking time out from their everyday to do something somewhat silly: strapping wheels to our feet to glide around and around, not really going anywhere in particular, contained in an activity that doesn't need to mean anything more than what it is. Fun.

As we get older, we look for things that give us a sense of child-like joy or teenage rebelliousness. For me, rollerskating hits both the kid and teen in me. It's wonderful to find those things in life that help you feel most yourself.

So, if you love having fun, keep having fun. Whatever that means to you. Get into your groove. It could be making music, swimming, skating, knitting or just being in nature. You never know, the 9-year-old in you may be waiting there to greet you.