In the beginning, I rode for speed, to reduce my commute from 30 min to 7, to give me more time to work. To hurry up. Then, on weekends, I started to roam, using the bike to shorten distances, but finding unusual angles of NYC from the unobstructed vantage point, learning how neighborhoods and boroughs stitch together. Exploring, I made new connections with the texture of the city, and deeper ones with the girlfriends who came along. Soon, I started to take the long way home instead of the fast way. Choosing the slowness that came from calming my thoughts over the speed of the zero commute. I took it upstate to tackle real hills, to push myself in new ways and to feel rewards of downhill and discovery in an unexpected detour. Now, the bike, and where it takes me, is where I go when I’m looking for myself. At 45, I’m stronger than I ever before, and more than ever the girl I was growing up in North Carolina. Sometimes things don’t feel life-changing because they just become part of your life. But maybe that’s the literal definition of “life-changing.”
@aquicky