Let's start this journey together out by being up front about some key facts:
I'm extremely anxious about anything I haven't become an expert in yet. I'm not an expert when it comes to cycling, affordable housing, or really anything related to this whole experience. "Why do it then?" you ask? Well, we'll get to that soon, I promise. But for now, as promised, a story.
This week I've been feeling especially anxious about the new experiences that come along with this. This weekend I'll travel to Philadelphia by myself to meet up with all the other leaders on all of the routes, including my three co-leaders on Central US, where they will all find out that I'm a fraud. I'm nowhere near as cool as I seem via e-mails, text messages, and conference calls. Additionally, the weather has gotten nicer this week, which only means additional cyclists on the road who actually know what they're doing. While I've always had a passion for biking, but I've never really been a "cyclist"and I'm nowhere near as educated on basic bike crap as everyone assumes I am. It's kind of embarrassing.
With all that said, I started this week feeling like a complete phony. Despite my low confidence, I hopped on my bike today for a 19 mile ride because I'm pretty sure staying inside on a day like today warrants a good deal of purgatory time. In one of the villages in the Birmingham area, I was stopped at a light and I left a good deal of room between myself and the car in front of me. After sitting for a minute, the car behind me pulled up next to me and I was sure that I had pissed someone off by doing something wrong. The older guy in this white SUV rolled down his window and I was prepared for the worst,
"Hi. I'm a Mountain Brook police officer and..."
These are some of the words I fear the most when I'm in Birmingham. Clearly, I was in some trouble.
"...and I just wanted to thank you for the safety and caution that you're riding with. We have a lot of cyclists causing trouble by weaving in and out of this traffic, and I just wanted to thank you for keeping things safe."
Boom. What? Instant affirmation. Apparently I was doing something right. (Not only that, but he implied that I counted as a "cyclist" so that's kind of cool I guess). Thanks to these affirming words, the rest of the ride was a breeze, despite that fact that Birmingham only has uphill climbs.
Additionally, when I got back in from the ride I received a phone call from a host that I was sure would not be able to accommodate us this year due to scheduling issues. I braced myself as all the reasons that this host should say no were listed, and then found myself speechless when the voice on the other end of the phone said that they cared so much about this organization that they were going to find some way to host us anyways. It sounded impossible, but sometimes people just pull through and are surprisingly awesome.
So today= a huge confidence booster. All of these sweet things are seeming to accumulate to make this summer less and less of a huge, scary monster.
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