No matter how tough.
“I can do it,” thought my ambitious ten-year-old self.
Sitting on top of my bicycle as an elementary school student, I desperately wanted to be like the other kids riding their two-wheel bicycle. Yup, you guessed it. I was a little late to the party to take the training wheels off. Literally. Although it had been about 5-6 years of using training wheels, it always stung when I felt the glares of other kids who were younger than I was who were riding their two-wheel bicycle like they were Indiana Jones.
Despite my innocent insecurities, I always had fun cycling with my friends around the neighborhood. Cycling is always fun when you have people around you. I always tried to focus on that part instead of the fact that I could not ride a two-wheel bicycle. Although the simple notion to have fun with friends was all I could think about, there was nothing more I wanted than to feel qualified. To be seen as the bigger kid (terms and conditions apply, little did I know) and as someone normal. With that in mind, I pushed myself to ride the bicycle without training wheels by the end of the upcoming school break. I just needed some backup. Ok, a lot of backup. So I called the reinforcements, my mom.
We made plans to practice cycling without the training wheels every day. There was at least a week or two weeks of school holiday and I had plenty of time to fall down and get back up. When I practiced, my mom would run behind me to make sure I did not fall. Also, because I feared falling and bruising my knees, this was the arrangement we had casually signed off on.
For the first few days, the fear of falling off the bicycle might have as well been my worst nightmare. For the next few days after that, I started fearing the fall a little less and just hoped no one would see me cycle because I was not a pro. Progress took place, and my mom had to spend less energy running after me when I cycled. The end of school break drew near and suddenly, my improved cycling was the most exciting thing to me. As my friends returned from their vacation, I was so excited to show off to my friends that I could ride that bicycle without training wheels like a pro.
I was not really a pro, but true enough, when my friends saw me cycling smoothly in my two-wheel bicycle, I was congratulated with “finally.” Satisfaction had never been more real at the moment. I felt like I was capable of doing something that everyone was doing. Fast forward well over ten years later (not getting too specific here), I realised that the lesson was never about how I got myself to do something everyone was doing, it was because I decided (and my mom’s) to ride a two-wheel bicycle. Not only did I take control of what I wanted, I knew I would stop at nothing till I got it.
Looking back, it is amazing what our memory tells us about ourselves. Our memories combined with our own takeaways enable us to control the narrative and steer control of our lives.
In the same way, this memory is a reminder to me that once you make up your mind, believing you can do that one thing is important. Especially during this uncertain time for many of us. While many of us are at home, wondering what kind of fate awaits us next, I encourage you to make up your mind to believe that we can overcome this pandemic together. The fear of getting sick is easy, but the real win here is not giving in to the negativity and choosing to believe that this storm will pass, hope is on the horizon, the sun will still rise and we will live to see another day.
petiteshark 