Pain shot up my leg as I grabbed it out of instinct. There was blood everywhere, and fear struck me. Luckily I was able to gather the courage to stumble back to our campsite, but consequently, I had lost the desire to ride my bike. I still have the scar to this day. Since that camping trip long ago, biking hadn’t been a big interest for me.
Above all, I was proud of myself for not giving up. It seemed like the destiny played with me for these two months. Yet something stronger turned my luck the other way around. I realized that even though life puts us through a lot of situations, when we least expect it, giving up shouldn`t be an option to any of us. I went from being too happy, to being completely devastated by the situation.
I realize that any slight slip could have resulted in complete failure and ultimately death, which personally, I am not comfortable thinking about at such a young age. It is when we step out of that comfort zone and experience something in life we potentially could have missed, we undergo the greatest times of our lives, making us stronger, well rounded people. Like my father always told me, “A fall is not a fall unless you run out of adrenaline before you run out of rope.”
My parents took me to the doctor's to find out that the fall had caused me to severely sprain my ankle. The next day, I was riding my bike again. Furt... ... middle of paper ... ...y feet before I could even realize what had happened. I went inside to a shocked and angry father as my eyebrow and forehead began to swell to the size of a golf ball. I went to the doctor and learned that there was no real damage and we could expect the golf ball on my forehead to heal on its own and go away.
I was now paying for my adolescent stupidity as I threw up for what seemed like hours. I was vomiting profusely like this because of the beating my brain took from its impact with the road. A few days after the accident, I was reunited with what used to be my shiny, new, midnight blue Huffy BMX bike. The front tire was flat, and the rim was bent up beyond repair. My seat was bent back and would probably take a machine to fix.
A lot has changed in the past seven years, I’ve gone from being depressed, to hating myself, my body, to being the happiest person ever, and the most accepting person as well. I’m glad I went through this phase, because now I can share my story to others and hope that whatever their battle is, they can get through it and no longer how long they take; months, years, it’s okay because with time you can get through
Every ascent left me elated that I had survived the previous death-defying fall. When another nerve-wracking climb failed to follow the last exhilarating descent and the ride was over, I knew I was hooked.
"I don't know what happened -- all of a sudden we were all crashing," said Schrader, who was unhurt in the accident. "I guess someone got into Dale because Dale got into me and then we went up. We hit pretty hard and Dale hit harder." Schrader tried to visit Earnhardt's car after the accident ended, but quickly left the area. I didn't get to talk to Dale," Schrader said of his escape.
I ask him to give me a push. He had a worried look on his face as he said, “sure”. I think he saw the blood running down my face and my jersey ripped open with my cut filled with dirt and blood forming bloody mud. He started my bike and I crawled on. He pulled the clutch in since I couldn’t move my arm and pushed me down a hill and released it.
I rode my first bike on this street. I also crashed many times on the dirty asphalt. The curb of the sidewalk in front of my house is where I would jump my bike. This simple thing never seemed to get old. All over the street, I would jump and ride my bike.