Riding Lessons

By Mallika Kanneganti

1. I was a bit late learning how to ride a bike. I was ten years old, still a child, but all my friends had learned how to ride bikes and I was embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t. My family did all they could to teach me. I had to go to India for a summer, and a girl who did errands for my grandmother was employed to teach me. I didn’t like her because she was bossy and rude, so I avoided her. When I got back to the U.S., my uncle took over the job and I learned much faster when he was teaching me.

2. The phrase “It’s like riding a bike. You never forget.” is common, but I never really thought about what it meant. It’s supposed to be about neuroplasticity, i.e. how learned skills use muscle memory and usually stay with someone all their life.

3. Before the bike was invented, etymologists think that people used to say, “It’s like riding a horse.”

4. Before learning how to ride a bike, I used to rollerblade a lot. I had a lot of friends who didn’t know how to rollerblade. I tried rollerblading to school, but I stopped because it was hard to fit those bulky skates into my elementary school locker. Looking back now, I wonder why biking is so much more common as a mode of transportation than rollerblading.

5. During my sophomore and junior years of high school, my parents made it difficult for me to get my driver license. This led to me biking everywhere within about a four-mile radius. Most of the places I biked to were pretty far from my house as I lived in the part of my hometown that was just far from everything. I biked even in heavy rain. My cross country coach noticed how much I was biking and seemed to be mildly impressed. He told me that I’d be in really good shape.

6. I had a really nice bike when I was 15 that my sister bought from her friend for $20. It got stolen when I rode it during freezing weather. I left it lying on the sidewalk because I got frostbite and it was so painful, I had to run inside immediately. I went back for the bike later and it was gone. I was really disappointed because it was a really nice bike, so comfortable to ride.

7. When I was a freshman in college, I had a friend who was a high school senior who was worrying about college applications. Another friend and I were talking about her, and my friend was telling me that she was frustrated and worried that our senior friend did not know how to ride a bike and did not care to learn. I didn’t understand what the big deal was, but my friend was telling me that it’s not healthy to be so sheltered that you’re so afraid to fall. I could sympathize with our senior friend though. I had fallen off of my bike many times and had my fair share of scrapes and bruises, and I knew that they were never fun. I knew she was making it into a metaphor, but I didn’t think it was fair to compare physical pain to emotional pain.

1. That same year, I got really lazy. There was a bus on campus and I took it everywhere, even to places that were easily within walking distance. It makes me wonder if having a bike on campus would have made me less lazy.

2. I wanted to bring a bike to my dorm the year after that, but bikes are difficult to store. I bought a skateboard, because those are smaller. The skateboard ended up in a corner unused. I tried teaching myself how to ride it and couldn’t get it and eventually gave up.

3. I lived off campus the year after. I didn’t have a car and was irritated that I had to take two buses any time I wanted to go anywhere, and the buses are always late. It makes me wish I had a bike.

4. My sister was scared of riding bikes because she was in a biking accident that scared her. I myself never got afraid of riding bikes even when I fell. I was hit by a car once that was coming out of a school parking lot; both my bike’s brakes were broken. It was going so slowly, I was uninjured, but I thought it made a funny story.

5. There have been a few times in my life when I was afraid to fall. I’ve been afraid of applying for jobs and afraid of confronting people. I’m trying to push myself to risk falling more, because the damage is never really that bad.

By Mallika Kanneganti