Cycling to School

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

                                                                         ~ Albert Einstein

 Sunday 8 September 2013

Yesterday, I cycled to my school as a part of CAS activity. It was an awesome experience! I suggested this to two other friends of mine, Jaidev and Shafqat, they also agreed to join me. It accounted for 2 actions hours and was one of the most rigorous activities we had done till now.

After I got consent from my CAS and IBDP coordinator I informed my friends about it. Since we all lived in different directions and at different distances, I planned out the entire journey, including the time it would take up. I kept three important things in mind while planning:

• Our Saturday school began at 9 am.
• The school was approximately 12 km from our houses
• The route should be short and safe

 So, I found one landmark (The Radisson Blu Hotel Square) which was equidistant from our houses and asked both of them to meet me there so that we could continue our further journey together. I also estimated the time it would take us to reach there and it turned out it was an hour long journey. Since everything relied on how I planned the entire errand, I learned how important it is to plan and that while doing so it is extremely important that you co-operate with others and understand their problems.

This was the first time I was undertaking such a long journey alone and when I informed my father about it he told me that he used to cycle to his school every day and it was 17 km away. At first, I did not think it was much but as I started cycling I slowly grasped how energy consuming cycling was. However, I was very excited about it and perhaps that is what gave me an unusual determination to complete this journey. I cycled like never before. When I reached the school I not only experienced a strong wave of euphoria but also became more aware about my skills and capabilities.

After hours of study and a hearty dinner, we started our return journey at 1.40 pm, and there came a strange challenge. Since we ate so much and were riding under the afternoon sun it became really difficult for us to keep cycling. After some time we stopped near a brook and rested for few minutes. Then with all the energy we had left with us, we reached to our places at 3 pm. What I realised was that we are often very close to success when we give up, if we push ourselves a little we can do wonders!

It was indeed an exhausting journey but a truly amazing and memorable one. There is so much to learn from a simple cycling trip and so much more to enjoy! I and both my friends were happy that we completed our mission successfully and we also decided that all our working Saturdays would be ‘Cycle to School Saturdays’!