Cycle Your Hometown

6Matt • 9th Nov 2009 • Just A Thought

If you had gotten onto a bicycle today and rode around your hometown you would’ve had a strange and surreal experience.

It would’ve all started normal enough, getting settled on your bike that you traveled Europe on two years ago, and after climbing a big hill your heart would be punishing you for your recent lack of exercise.  After nearly being run off the road by a Hummer or two you would pass the pumpkin patch that you used to visit annually while growing up, and would remember the school trips you used to take there.

You’d pass the park you had your 6th birthday party at (Super Mario-themed, of course), that creepy and plant-overgrown house with the broken down 70′s Ford pickup in front, and you’d stop for a few minutes at the top of the neighborhood, surveying the downtown area below.  This area used to be open and undeveloped but now there are two shopping centers and countless apartment buildings, all butted up against the river that bisects town.

You’d get choked up at this lookout, not being able to find the small footbridge that was built over ten years ago when your friend drowned trying to cross the river after being bullied at school.  He was avoiding the expected route home, lost his footing halfway across the river, and was carried away.  His memorial bridge is now gone.

The town feels different now.  Parks that provided endless fun now seem to be just a sandpit and slide.  The basketball courts are clean yet unused, tennis nets sag to the ground, and the dirt field you used to spend days at with a shovel making BMX bike ramps then injuring yourself on them because they were too big… they’re now covered in million dollar houses.

Your bike ride would have been like mine — nostalgic and healing.

It is good to remember from whence you’ve come.
It is good to carry that into who you are becoming.
It is good to cycle your home town.