How I learned to ride a bicycle

I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday. I must have been seven or eight years old when I rode my first bicycle, and the day I learned to ride my bike is very memorable to me. Learning how to ride a bicycle can be exciting as well as painful. But I found it really exciting indeed. I was starting to realize that all of the other kids where riding two-wheelers, and I was the only one still riding a small bike with those ridiculous training wheels. I felt that it was time for me to make a transition from training wheels to a “big kid” bike.

It was my sister who taught me how to ride a bicycle “The training wheels are coming off today” was the first thing she said at the breakfast table. Mom just finished a batch of her secret ingredient blue berry pancakes with butter on top. Walking outside that morning I can remember how sunny it was and how there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a bright warm day and the perfect summer day.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying the afternoon.

She and I went to the park to see what we could do there. There was nobody in the park when we arrived. My sister brought her bicycle and told me to sit on it and place my feet on the pedals. The bike was a blue, white seated two wheeler that had a basket in the front. The event stuck in my head because it was the first thing I can remember my sister and I doing together.

“Pedal slowly!”, she advised me while she held the bicycle and ran slowly along.

The road on which I was learning was smooth. My sister was holding the rear of the seat to make sure I wouldn’t fall. She assured me that I was not going to fall because she would be running right behind, holding the bicycle. She reassured me by saying that it was the word of a sister and I could trust it.

“You’re gonna do great!”, she said.

My sister was kind. She spent several hours trying to teach me how to ride. She did not let go of the bicycle even once. I was indeed very much excited at this opportunity to learn how to ride a bicycle. I thanked my sister for her kindness and patience. By the time I got the hang of it, the sun was going down so she said we could continue tomorrow on the stopping. At dinner my mom cooked my favorite foods, because of the hard work I put in.

The next day, again, my sister took me to a road. I started to pedal and the bicycle moved. Once it started to move, I felt pedaling was much easier than I remembered.

“Would it be as easy to ride the bicycle without you holding on it?”, I asked.

She did not answer me because she couldn’t run, hold the bycicle, and talk at the same time. Or this is what I thought. In a few seconds, I will have known the reason for her silence, but for the time being  I told her we could stop if she was tired. Again, she did not reply. I turned to see if she was feeling O.K. I saw her, except she wasn’t where I expected her to be. She was about fifty yards away from where I was. Suddenly, I felt quite giddy. I was scared to death that I was going to fall and hurt myself. When I was scared, my mind went blank from peddling, and I just wanted off. I forgot how to use the brakes, lost control and fell right off the bike.  I cried but no one looked at me because…well…no one was there.

She ran over and said she let me go because she could no longer keep up. After I was done crying, she told me there was nothing more she could teach me,  that I had learned enough. I only needed some practice now. I was extremely happy to hear this. She said that if I could ride it the way I rode it for that fifty yards, I had no problems.

I practiced for a few more hours and I was getting pretty good. But it was painful, for I fell several times and received some cuts on my hands and legs. My sister, however, told me not to lose heart. Soon I found that I could pedal some distance without falling. My sister told me I was the fastest learner that she had ever seen. I told her that she was the best teacher that I’d ever met. We came home hand in hand as if we were best cronies.

Not long after, dad bought me a brand new bicycle. It was neon-red! As soon as I set my eyes on my own bicycle I fell in love with it. I nurtured the bicycle like a baby, replacing all the worn cables, carefully oiling all the necessary parts, aligning the brakes.

A few days ago, I took a ride with my sister and had all the memories back. When I think of those times, one of my most memorable childhood experiences would definitely be learning to ride a bike. Almost every child will encounter this event in some period of their lifetime, and will actually discover a great deal from it.

This event not only represents freedom for me, but it also helped me establish the foundation on which I base my existence. Learning to ride a two-wheeler demonstrated a new way to have fun, and also illustrates how will-power and perseverance help overcome challenges throughout life: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.