Reflection

As much as I want this blog to be filled with smiles and cheers and happiness today I want to take the time to remind everyone to take a moment and reflect on who you are and what you have done in your life. Right now there is a lot of fear and sadness just from the news headlines and that is all we see as it is in our face. But remember to think of those who we don’t hear of or friends or loved ones who we can see or visit or speak to just to say “hello” and reflect on life.

I went back to school 2 years ago and one of the assignments was to look at my life and see what one thing I wanted to change. The one thing I realized was deep down I was a very selfish person not only for myself but also with regards to my family. I realized that I had been doing so much for myself and my family but not doing anything to share with others outside our little circle. I was gaining new knowledge and had years of knowledge and experience but I was keeping it all inside and I decided I wanted to change that. This was the period in my life when I decided to be more outgoing and do more for the one thing I love the most – cycling. I chose to reach out to families that I saw at the local bicycle retailer I worked at and interact with them more than just “selling” them things as one thing that I loved to see was smiles from families from the joy of cycling. I shared my experiences of cycling and racing and the ups and downs and saw many eyes light up with shared interest and thoughts of trying something new. I had already raced Belgian Waffle Ride and was racing in the Quick n Dirty Summer Series and I shared my trials and tribulations from those events with all that would listen and months later I would hear “thank you” from many families and new friends as they took my experiences and made them their own or for their family.

This is the main reason I started this blog as in San Diego there is an amazing cycling community and I have met many new friends because of this. But the amazing thing is I continue to find new friends as this community continues to grow and each of us has so much knowledge to share with each other with helps to build strong bonds between each other. Just yesterday someone I have recently become friends with helped another friend with learning how to set up her cycling computer as we could not figure out how to upload the route for our ride. And someone who has become a good friend due to cycling adventures helped me with some duct tape knowledge as I tore a hole in my sidewall and of course did not have my plugs or a tube so I needed some way to limp my bike a few miles back home. The duct tape did not completely fix the tear but it did allow me to pump and ride and pump and ride to at least make it to my home and swap bikes to head back to finish the ride.

So today, and continuously in the future, take the time to say hello to someone new whether it is on a ride or at a brewery or when grabbing a cup of coffee. I find it very easy to speak to those that are already in our cycling community however the trick is to just find someone random to say hello to and strike up a conversation and share your thoughts and knowledge in anything and make sure to take the time to listen to them as well. You never know who you will meet and what they have done to impact this world and you never know what knowledge you could get from them to better your own life. Just look at this happy smiling group of dirty riders below and just imagine the knowledge that each individual has that can be shared and make a difference whether small or huge in someone else’s life!