Your story.

I sometimes wonder about people. I wonder about their outlook on life and their ideas of what life should be like. I am equally impressed and disgusted by their actions, depending on who is acting and who is reacting and in what way. We raise children, planting the idea in their heads that they can be whatever they want to be and they can, if they work on it. The second part always gets lost in translation. You can be whatever you want, if you only work hard enough on it. I truly believe that, because that is how I live my life. I know that people are different and that not everyone works the same way but bottom line is, if you have a goal and you work towards it, chances are, you will reach it, as long as you keep track of yourself.

People expect their families and friends to stay by the side line, day in and day out, cheering for their accomplishments, waiting for them to finish what ever it is, they started and although it is always good to have someone like that close, you should never forget that in the end, it is you that should be cheering, it is you that should be pushing yourself, it is you, that can reach whatever you want. I see friends and family struggling every day with their everyday live chores and sometimes I wonder if they choose to struggle or if they just can’t help themselves.

By now, you might know this about me already: I am stubborn. It’s just in me and I cannot help myself. I am not stubborn about other people’s lives and how they should perform whatever it is they set their minds to, but I am stubborn about my goals. I believe, that no matter how unreachable a goal seems, you can do it, as long as you are determined, that this is what you want. A year ago I started running, my goal was to run out all the pain I had in me, the pain I had from loosing my grandma. And every step made it easier to accept the fact, although my soar heart is still aching, running makes it easier to cope with the pain. A few months later I ran my first half-marathon and I ran it with her being on my mind. I ran for all the people, that cannot run and I ran for A, because no matter how hard he will try, he will never be able to run a half-marathon, but this is a different story.

My point is, that I want you to know, that you can do it, whatever it is, you want to do, you can. I truly believe it. I let you in on another secret of mine, that now, I can openly say out loud, because I achieved a goal, that I thought, I would never achieve. I am 25 years old now and in all these years I had no idea how to ride a bike. I mean, I understood the physics and I understood how to ride a bike but I was simply not able to put one and one together. It seemed like a task that I would never be able to master. Imagine, something kids do as early as three years old, I could simply not manage. It is not, that my dad didn’t try, but he said I was so stubborn when I couldn’t do it right away, as a five-year-old, that he just gave up on it. He said, that I was determined to never ride a bike and that I said I would never need to anyways, which is why he just didn’t try it anymore. This shows you, how stubborn I actually was, when a five-year-old makes an argument like that and her father just simply goes along with it. This being said, no matter how stubborn my children will end up being, I will teach them how to ride a bike, whether they want to or not.

Well, a week ago, I first sat on a bike and after 5 minutes, the same feeling that overcame me twenty years ago, came rushing back to me. I would never be able to do this, I am not smart enough, this is ridiculous, I have to legs, why do I have to ride a bike… A gave me this look of concern and a deep silence, he was ready to take the bike back when I asked him kindly, or not so kindly, to just let me play around with the bike, which he did. He sat down in a shaded corner for about an hour and watched me talking to myself, trying to figure out how on earth to ride this devils-two-wheeled-death-trap. Every now and then I would manage to get a few pedaling-like leg-movements in but nothing more than that. Yesterday, I decided, it was time to try it again, Rome wasn’t build on a day so why should I have been able to ride a bike after only an hour?

Well turns out, after another 45 minutes of me trying to jump around like a maniac on a bike, A trying to give me tips on how ride a bike while elegantly riding his bike next to me, children laughing and screaming, people passing me, telling me, it is never too late to learn how to ride a bike, I – padding myself on the shoulder – successfully managed to stay on a bike. I mean I was riding a two-wheeler, all by myself, no one holding me, no one stirring that deadly machine, no one telling me how to survive a deadly fall. It was all me, all by myself, I – of all people – managed to ride a bike.

In conclusion, let me tell you this, I believe in you and I believe that whatever you set your mind to, you can do it. If I can, then so can you. It won’t be easy, leaving you with mud covered shoes and pants and sweating like there is no tomorrow but you can do it and you will, just don’t give up and remember, that every failing (and falling) is necessary for you to succeed. And what ever you do, just don’t forget to give yourself a pad on the back every now and then, and remind yourself ever so often that you can do it.