on refunds

i never got the chance to learn how to ride a bike during my pre-teens. less than a year from now, i'll be turning twenty and i still don't know how to ride one. not that i'm stressed by this fact. though i do know that they do might come in handy one day (zombie apocalypse), i've come to this point where I just really wanna get this done and over with.

see, i had the chance to learn how to ride one when i was younger. i was five and we lived in a very small village up north back in the Philippines. a few months into it, while i still had my trainer wheels, we moved next to the highway, and a bit more closer to the city than we used to 'cause it was then that i had to move to another school too. i know, complicated shit.

so yea, basically, once we got all settled in into our new place, they didn't want me to use our bicycles anymore 'cause we lived next to the highway. seems legit to me, and i didn't think riding a bike would be something that i'd stress about later on, but guess where we are now fucker?

a few weeks ago, at work, a guy from one of the local bike shops in the city came by and bought a few beers, knowing that he works at the bike shop, i jokingly asked him if he could teach me how to ride a bike. he said yes to my surprise. i told him later that day when he came back again for another slab that i'll turn up to his shop on my day off so he can finally teach me how to ride one- and no, there's no *bam chiki wam wam* (retro porn music)

saturday finally came and i was there at his shop. he was busy entertaining somebody else but he said hi and told me to just talk to one of the guys behind the counter. so i did. i walked up to them, looked one of them in the eye and asked them if any of them could teach me how to ride a bike. i knew there then that most of them probably wasn't as interested because one, i'm a dude, and two, i already have hair growing in between my legs.

one of them did came up to me though and showed me their entry-level bikes. it's $350, he said. already half-priced. it looked great, it had a navy blue frame, and its gears were just far more complicated than the mono-gear that i used to have fourteen years ago. 

riding a bike's easy, he said. you just put the ball of your feet on the pedal and start pedaling. NO SHIT, i said to myself. i was a bit disappointed. No fucking way have I had the idea that doing that would 'cause the bike to go in motion. He was right though. I guess a part of me was just looking for something more than that. I wanted to have a go at it, I wanted to have somebody be there for me for support while i helplessly fall onto the ground whilst laughing at myself. I know, can you imagine? 

i missed that whole episode in my life and there i was, at an underground bike shop talking to this lanky american guy who looks like he's gonna break once he's on a bike going downhill. that was it for me, might as well pack it in, game over. i knew that the centrifugal force in the wheel will help me balance myself out. really, it's that easy. i just need the balls to go at it and not care what other people think. that's it. 

luckily, one of my friends told me he could teach me how to ride one in their garage the next coming weeks. hopefully, this one actually works out.

next on the list: swimming. I know, fuck my life.