Learning How to Ride a Bicycle… As an Adult (Introduction)
Posted in Uncategorized
June 1, 2008
Introduction: Life-long Learning and Living
“Oh my god, I can’t believe you just learned how to ride a bike. That is so weird.” That is what a friend of mine said, realizing that, I never did learn to ride as a kid. She assumed that I had forgotten and was re-learning and, in the weeks leading up to my first lesson, on occasion responded to my panic attacks with, “You know, they say, ‘It’s like getting back on a bike’ for a reason…” not realizing that, I can’t really get back on something I’ve never been on. To her, it was unfathomable that an adult would learn from scratch and be successful at it.
I wish though, that I could dispel the notion that if you didn’t learn as a child, then you shouldn’t try. I’m an advocate of life-long learning and I think that there are many adults out there that do want to learn. And I’ll bet, a lot of people have motivations similar to mine — high gas prices, growing waistline, rising body fat percentage, stressfulness of traffic, rising parking prices.
I think that, a lot of people have the motivation. But what people don’t have is a support network to guid them. I once heard a woman say, “I went to the bike store near me to ask if they knew of any bicycling lessons and the woman behind the counter said, ‘At your age?’ and she shook her head like I was pathetic.” Things like that demotivate people.
So, I’m here. I am not a bike instructor. Far from it, I am definitely still learning. But there’s a saying:
Stupid people never learn from their mistakes. Average people learn from their mistakes. And smart people learn from other people’s mistakes.
So I’m here so that you can learn from my mistakes or at least be better able to analyze your own mistakes. In the few months I’ve been cycling, people have told me, “Maybe I should get back on my bike” and “If she can learn, maybe I should at least try.” For people getting back on the bike, it’s merely a case of giving the bike a tune-up and a few laps around the block to get that muscle memory back. But for those learning, there is very little support and I want to be a part of that. So stay tuned, and tomorrow, I’ll post about my very first day on the bike.
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The First Step: Getting on the Saddle. Continuing from yesterday: A good friend of mine was enthusiastic and prolly, seeing her enthusiasm to teach me helped lessen the dampers I later got. To hear, “I can’t fathom an adult learning how to ride a bike…” it’s much easier to confront that with, “Well. I did.”[...]