WA-2

Riding a bike has never been a big thing for me. I was fairly coordinated when I was younger but the thought of riding and balancing on two thin tubes of rubber scared the heck out of me so bike riding was never high on my list. Because of this I was nine when I finally took my training wheels off. I had been putting it off for years because I was sure that as soon as the extra wheels were taken off I would suffer a horrible accident. In fact I hadn't even crashed before. I was too cautious and did not go fast. Eventually I got sick of watching my younger sister and friend ride faster than me and asked my dad to take off my training wheels. I pushed off with my dad holding on to the seat and when he let go I didn’t fall, crash, or die.
After a couple months of riding around an empty lot I was comfortable on my two wheeler and stopped worrying so much. I hadn’t crashed badly yet and one day my sister, my friend, Alex, and his sister, Clare decided to race down a hill near my house. At first we took turns going down the hill as fast as we could then we started trying to beat each other two people at a time. Eventually we ended up all going down together. The third time we did this Clare and I were out in front and it was amazing! I felt like I was flying we were going so fast. We both leaned over the handle bars to go faster so neither of us noticed when we started veering toward each other. We both noticed when we hit though. In a second I was on the ground with two bikes and a person on top of me.

My first thought was one of bewilderment as I had no idea what had just happened. Then as I realized what was going on and where I was I burst into tears. After Alex and my sister pulled both bikes off me I had to walk my bike back up the hill to my house. I turned out I wasn’t even that badly injured the inside of my leg was scraped but I hadn't broken anything nor did I need stitches. I don't even have scars now, but it still took me many hours going up and down our street to regain confidence on a bike.