See that light spot on my chin right above where my finger is resting? It’s a scar.
When I was 6, we lived in a dead-end street in a small townhouse.
Most of my “work days” were spent cruising. Up and down the street, just riding my little bicycle.
One day, as I just reached the open end of the road and turned around to go back, a white van turned into the street. I was ahead of it as we were both going towards our house, but for some reason, the van didn’t seem to slow down.
I panicked and raced like a madman, so the van wouldn’t hit me – and then I hit something.
I lost control of the handlebars and flew right over them, planting my face on the asphalt. Meanwhile, my bike drifted off to the right, hitting our neighbor’s car.
When I came back to my senses, I felt a little dizzy and the first thing I saw was blood. Blood on the street, blood on my hands. Somehow I got up and walked back to the house.
My parents took me to the hospital and I remember sitting there, holding bandages to my chin, waiting. A lot. Another guy came in on a stretcher, who’d spliced his motorcycle in half on a tree. Not good. So I had to wait.
The doctor eventually glued the wound, it was small enough so I didn’t need stitches. Then I went home, watched TV and had lots of ice cream.
That day I learned several valuable lessons:
- When a situation feels dangerous, don’t panic.
- You’re stronger than you think.
- When things go really wrong, you can just ask for help.
- There’s always someone who’s got it worse than you do.
- No matter how bad things get, they’ll always be okay in the end.
The way you get wiser in life is by living your life and not worrying about crashing your bike.
You just keep riding.
When you fall – and we all fall sometimes – you get up, walk to your bike, or your friend, or your parents, or the hospital and make sure you’re okay.
Then, you can think about it for a little while.
- How can I ride better?
- Should I do something differently?
- Is this really a reason to stop riding my bike?
Sometimes, you’ll learn a lot of things.
Sometimes, you won’t learn anything.
Sometimes, you’ll get a scar to make sure you remember.
But you can’t live your life just waiting for your bike to crash, or you might stop riding altogether. That’s not an option.
Just keep trying things and don’t worry so much about which of them could go wrong. It’s never too late to learn when they do.
PS: The shirt I’m wearing today is another good reminder.
