Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. - Lance Armstrong
Growing up, my dad would always fight with me anytime I try to hop on my elder brothers bicycle. He would go ahead saying ‘ Nhaji, what do you think you’re doing? Women don’t sit on bicycles. When you fall down and break your neck I hope you don’t come to me’. I would assure him not to worry and that I was going to be fine.
A few minutes after, he would go call my mom to scare me off the bicycle. I didn’t want to listen to them but I had no choice because I was a kid. Those days, all my friends had bicycles and knew how to ride. It looked like I was the only odd one out so, I decided to use my brothers bicycle for experimenting.
This particular bicycle was way bigger than me because then, I was very smallish but my stubborn self would never listen. Now I have come to understand that I am naturally stubborn when I put my mind to something and I would do anything to achieve it. My parents always being on my neck to not sit on my brother’s bicycle didn’t stop me from learning how to ride a bicycle because I found my way around it.
This was what I did. On weekends, my parents always had events to attend and the good thing is that we didn’t have school on weekends. I was going to Arabic school on weekends and we would close around 12:00pm. By 1:00pm I should be at home and that was my time to do my own thing. No parents at home means I could start my learning how to ride bicycle lessons.😂
I actually didn’t get any help from my brother because those were the days of mortal combat and he would always be busy playing game with his friends. Gradually, I started to find my way around the whole cycling thing. I could balance myself on the seat and move the bicycle for about a minute. The only problem I had was with how to pedal the bicycle.
I was really scared when it came to pedalling because my friends would always say that you can never learn how to ride a bicycle without getting hurt. This got so much into my head and it made me hold back so much due to fear.
Weeks went by and I was doing so well. With time, I was able to start getting rid of my fear. I started to pedal bit by bit until I found my balance. God being so good and unfortunately for me, one particular weekend as I having my cycling lessons, I fell off the bicycle and it wasn’t a great scene. There was so much blood around and from the way I screamed, my siblings run out to see what was wrong. They thought I was dead for a minute but guess what? I wasn’t.😂
They took me in and I got cleaned up. Once my parents got home, the news got to them even before they could settle down. You know how siblings can be. My parents were really mad at me but later on, we would all sit down and laugh about what happened. Now, I’m a pro at cycling and I’m proud of myself for finding my way around all the barriers in my way.😅
This is to tell you that ,there’s always a way to achieve your goals no matter what or who stands in your way. Make sure to not get hurt, though.😅