Seventeen years ago I had a nasty bike accident. I still pick a granule of gravel out of my elbow on occasion. If there had been a car on the road, I would have been easily killed. Luckily, there wasn't.
I wrecked my bike and just didn't buy a new one. By then I was into driving and lived in the country where there was no good place to ride (which factored into my accident). I thought about trying again in college but my roommate who was an avid bike rider fell and broke her arm riding to class the first day. I figured it just wasn't meant to be my thing.
Recently we moved to a neighborhood with a nice park that has an asphalt path all around it. I finally got the guts to buy a bike and even got one of those trailers to pull my little guy. I got the bike for Mother's day but procrastinated trying it out. It seemed there were always people around and I didn't want to be embarrassed.
I finally gave it a go and was wobbly but got the hang of it again quickly. I took a couple of slow laps around the park and called it good. Last week my 4yr old wanted to ride his big wheel in the park so I followed him on my bike for a couple of laps.
Today was an absolutely gorgeous Fall day so I decided to finally assemble the trailer and take the little guy for a ride with it. It was awkward getting the hang of how to maneuver the trailer but after a few minutes we were tooling around the neighborhood. My legs feel like it was a pretty good workout too.
It might sound silly and not like much of an accomplishment, but I feel proud of myself for overcoming my fear of embarrassment and personal injury. I also put the old saying to the test and found out you really never do forget how to ride a bike.