Life Lessons on a Bike

At the beginning of June, my car (Jenny) broke down. It was a big enough break to cost a small fortune we didn’t have. The car was thus parked in the parking lot and left there until we had enough to fix it. In the meantime, we had to make due with what we had. Considering Nic had to be to work far earlier than the buses ran, we got bikes and they became our new mode of transportation.

In the four weeks without Jenny, I learned a lot.

1. If you just focus on the step in front of you, you’ll reach the end before you know it. While riding a bike, I often started out completely overwhelmed. I’d ride eight miles to work and would start out with a giant feeling of dread knowing the end goal was so far away. So I started working on making it to a particular landmark or street. The shorter goals made me feel accomplished and made moving onward a little easier. Before I knew it, I was at work.

2. No one is timing you up the hill. There was one particular hill I would hit everyday. The first day, I had to get off and walk. But it was ok. The end result was the same; I made it up the hill. The second day, I only walked half. The third day, I slowly made it up the hill and by the fourth day I rode like everyone else up the hill. No one was there telling me I needed to be up that hill at a particular time. I just needed to get up there. The first time was hard and took a long time, and even though it was never easy to make it up the hill, each time was a little faster and a little easier.

3. Making a wrong turn is easy and only hard work will get you back on course. I rode to the bank one day and took what I thought would be an easier route. However, I took a wrong turn. By the time I figured out that I was going the wrong way, I was at least a mile off-course. There was no one to tell me it was ok that I made the mistake and fix it for me. I had to turn around a work to get back to where I needed to be. It was a lot more work and was not fun at all, but I learned to pay attention to where I was going. I had made one simple mistake and ended up completely off-course.

4. There are two sides to every hill. Sometimes I would be heading up a hill and I would struggle. But when you get to the other side, you just let go a coast the whole way down!

Once again I am in a similar predicament. Jenny has proven that she will never be a reliable car for us, but sadly we owe far too much to get rid of her. She is our car now and until we can afford to pay her off, we must come up with solutions for all the problems she presents.

My plan is to be grateful for the things she has taught me. She has made me grateful for a family that will bend over backwards to make sure I get through this life ok. No one can solve the problem that I am in, but so far, everyone has been there to make sure we make it through and to support us the entire way.

Jenny may be the worst car EVER, but I have the best family EVER!