Derby v. Real Life: The Point of No Return

I am at a major point of conflict everyone. A precipice that every skater reaches at some point in their derby career. I'm of course talking about derby versus real life. The inevitable conflict that rears its ugly head after having been bitten by the derby bug.

I recently went back to school (yay!). The campus is nice, the professors are great, my apartment is wicked sweet (for being on-campus that is)....but not a lot going on in the friend department. Remember how I did the summer rec league session? Well, I made a TON of really great friends! However, I just moved, so they are  now several states away! I did some research online and found out that they do have a rec league near me that's going to be accepting new members in the next few weeks.

Great, right? Not great. Why, you ask? This is the point of conflict I mentioned earlier. I really want to do the rec league, the skater in me demands I do the rec league. I know that I will make friends on the rec league, I know I will. The issue here is that there's also an on-campus book club that I want to join too. There is the possibility that the book club meetings may be scheduled on the same days or times as rec league practice and I really want to have some friends on-campus to do things with (like studying, hanging out, eating, etc..)The question remains: which one should I do? If I could do both, I would, but unfortunately I won't be able to swing both on top of a full load of classes and studying.

I made a Pro/Con list to help me figure this out:

Derby:
PROS:

• I make friends a lot faster in derby than I do in my everyday life, friends that I tend to like spending time with more than my non-derby friends.
• Derby feeds my skater soul and makes me happy.
• Keeps me physically active
• Makes me more confident
• I LOVE IT!

CONS:

• It's not on-campus and I don't have a car (too expensive to park)
• Dues
• Possibility of injury
• It's very likely I won't be making friends that go to school and that are on-campus 
• Pressure from unsupportive family members.

Book Club:

PROS:

• Instant on-campus friendships
• No pressure from unsupportive family members

CONS:

• Less skating time
• No derby friends to go skating with
• My skills won't improve-I want to make a team so badly and only skating during summer won't be enough.
• Buying the books (they can get pricey)
• Less happiness?

So there you go. It's a tough choice. My head says to do the book club, that it'll get me the on-campus friends that I want....but my heart tells me to do derby. What do I do? I need to think long and hard about this. If you have any sage advice that you want to share, sound off below! Thanks :)

Until Next Time..........Watch Emma Make A Decision