For those of you familiar with Lululemon Athletica, who’s ever stopped to read the stuff on their bags, you might recognize this phrase “Do a thing a day that scares you.” I think in a way, this is not a bad idea, as it’s an invitation to test our limits and step out of our comfort zone, whatever that means for you at the time. In some cases, exercise takes more than a day, such as me and riding bikes.
I got a bike for Christmas when I was four or five. I tried to learn with training wheels, but that didn’t last very long. So time on the bike (and learning how to ride it) was easily forgotten. My only bike ride growing up was riding on a double bike with my dad when we would go to “El Mirador Sur” on Saturday afternoons.
Then in my preteen years, rollerblading was the rage. I would go rollerblading with my friends at a skating rink and with my sister Angie on weekday afternoons. Well, I thought I was the coolest person in the world. I embraced it and learned how to rollerblade. I decided I didn’t really care about the whole “not knowing how to bike” thing.
Fast forward to earlier this year when we decided to move to China. China has always been very bike-friendly and well. Cameron thought teaching me how to ride would be an exciting summer project that could be easily accomplished in his mother’s small town. So he commissioned Kathy to find a bike. Sure enough, the next thing we knew, two yard-sale bikes were waiting for us in Dryden until we got there for the summer.
Our summers are usually quite busy. It’s spent doing things that need to get done (usually involving some form of government/bank paperwork). It’s also seeing people we usually only see in the summer. So the bike riding kept being pushed, and finally, only four days were left. We had to go on crash course mode to at least teach me to get the pedals going.
The first day was kind of awful, because being the perfectionist I am. I kind of hoped I would turn out to be a natural and make Cam super impressed/proud. Of course, that didn’t happen. But he asked me to give it a little more time and keep trying. I did, mostly because I love him and wanted to be able to bike with him once we got to China, but also because I kind of refuse to fail at anything (one would think getting Fs in Civil Law V and my Intellectual Property Seminar would whip that out of me, but no). So I kept trying.
And guess what? By day four, I was able to ride. Only on a straight line, and I couldn’t turn, but it was a start.
Shanghai has the advantage that it’s super flat, so you can effortlessly bike for as many miles as you want without running into any major hills. In general, city bikes suffice here. We were the last ones of the “new hires” bunch to get bikes, a) because it was too hot to ride anyway, and I didn’t want to purchase the bikes and have the weather discourage us from riding for good. And b) we wanted to make sure we could go into the expense and not get in trouble, as we are two and live on one salary. Ultimately, we got bikes in late August once Cam got paid. I was sure I was going to waltz-bike my way home from the shop.
That, of course, didn’t happen.
Our trip home from the bike shop resulted in me freaking out while trying to get through the crosswalk and into the bike lane. So I got off the bike and walked it all the way home (a 20-minute walk) while Cam rode slowly behind me (along with all the other bikes and electric scooters on the bike lane).
I was so mortified and embarrassed, thinking I had failed and disappointed Cameron. So when we came home, he hugged me, dried my tears, and explained that it was perfectly normal to be nervous about riding a bike for the first time in the middle of traffic, with a gazillion other bikes and scooters around. He said I needed to give myself a break because I hadn’t ridden in a month and a half. And before that, I had only ridden for four days. So no, he was not embarrassed, he was not disappointed, and he still loved me.
So we made a deal where I would take about a half hour of my day before stepping outside again and riding inside our apartment complex. During the day, car traffic is minimal so it would help me get familiar with the bike. I could practice my turns and start dodging traffic slowly and without much risk of being severely injured. So that was all I did bike-wise for about 3 weeks. At first, I would only do loops around, but then I slowly stepped out and went to the main streets in the complex. Soon I was riding alongside cars and scooters and not running over babies. It was great!
The next thing I knew, I rode to Cam’s school with him on weekends. And then I added pedaling through crosswalks. And then riding through obstacles. And then going to the store alone and carrying groceries in my basket. And then riding at night. And then joining our friends in biking to a restaurant, and biking to other friends’ houses. And then just biking with Cam, picking a street, and seeing how far we could go.
Basically, after you decide to keep going once you’ve managed to do that thing that scares you, it’s only a matter of transforming the fear into fuel, and figuring out how far can you go.
I couldn’t end this post without a picture of my gorgeous cherry bike! This is outside of Wanda Plaza before heading home with some groceries:
I don’t care how silly it may be. I can ride a bike! In China! Through crazy traffic and scooters galore! Yay me!
Ride on,
Analin