Harley Bike To Type
I love learning new things. It can be FUCKING scary but I love how it forces me out of my comfort zone.
This week I took a 3-day New Riders Course to get my license endorsement and learn how to ride a motorcycle. 🙂
I remember riding on my dad's motorcycle behind him a few times as a little girl but besides that, I had zero experience.
Jennifer really is to blame for all of it. She got me interested in motorcycles. She has always talked about how she loves Harleys and I have always argued that they are too loud. Fast forward 2 years, and now here I am, trained, tested, certified, and excited as all get out to find a motorcycle. See what happens when you fall in love with a woman and she starts rubbing off on you? Thankfully, this woman is cool as shit so I am happy when I find myself more like her!
One thing I didn’t realize is how incredibly complicated it is to drive a motorcycle. I now have a new respect for motorcyclists. I never knew how much skill, focus and in some cases, talent it takes to drive one of those suckers. Well, I know now. I’ll tell ya what: The more I learned about how to drive a motorcycle, the more scared I got. My brain was on high focus the whole time. There was never a moment I could relax unless we were taking a break.
I was the only woman in my class of 6. Everyone either had lots of motorcycle experience or had been riding with family members and wanted to learn to drive themselves. They were all extremely young except for one guy who was 47 but he had ridden his whole life and already owned 3 motorcycles. I felt out of place but it didn’t really bother me. I was there to learn and I wasn’t going to be intimidated by the others.
Turns out, I did pretty well holding my own. After a 5-hour online course, one day of classwork, 2 days of training on motorcycles out on the range, a skills assessment test, and a written test, I passed the course and was the only one to receive an award for getting 100% on both parts of the testing!
Learning to ride a motorcycle definitely took me out of my comfort zone. Basically every time the coach would explain and demonstrate the next exercise I would freeze up inside with fear and think “I don’t think I can do that.” But I decided to trust my instructor and it wasn’t long before I would find myself doing things that felt impossible. It’s amazing what we humans are capable of if we apply ourselves wholeheartedly. Whenever I felt terrified, which was like every other second, I would remind myself of all the hard things that I have done in my life.
I remember traveling all by myself to Detroit to get my certification as a therapeutic riding instructor years back. That was definitely scary and difficult but I did it. This year I took classes to learn how to freestyle swim and run my first triathlon. God, that was hard. I thought I would never get the hang of it. Hours and hours and hours and 5 weeks of practice later, there I was, in the middle of a lake at my first triathlon, doing the freestyle like a badass. Most recently I completed a half marathon. Two weeks prior to the race, due to a back injury, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to even run at all. During my motorcycle course, I kept all these things in my mind to help give me the determination to keep pushing myself.
I noticed how nervous everyone was when it came time for our assessment test where we had to each take turns driving 5 different difficult routines to prove our skills. I was nervous too but I think the difference is that I was there to push myself out of my comfort zone. I still get scared and nervous, but I know the benefits of making new pathways in my brain, so I have learned to embrace the discomfort.
It’s never easy being a student, especially since I’ve been an instructor, teacher, and coach my whole life. However, I am committed to being a lifelong learner. I don’t ever want to get so comfortable that I get stale and quit growing new brain cells.
I can’t wait to buy a motorcycle and take my girl out for a ride. Who knows where all this will take me, but for now I am just incredibly grateful for this new adventure and the gift to always learn new things.
What are your dreams? Are there things that feel too far out of your reach? What do you long for? Are you brave enough to take the leap?
You can do anything you put your mind to. Jennifer teases me that I used to be Amish and she’s basically right. I have been extremely sheltered and brainwashed most of my life. Learning to be a badass motorcycle rider was never on my radar until recently.
If I can do it, so can you.
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