Fact: I’m trying to embrace walking

5 days. It’s been 5 days since I got into a bike accident (pedestrian collision, I was the cyclist and no, the pedestrian was not injured like I was. Hell, I don’t even know what she looks like because she fled the scene so quickly. Let me just say, I was on the road, she was not on a sidewalk). Diagnosis: Sprained wrist and irritated shoulder cuff. It sounds okay, or bad, whatever, but let me tell you the kicker: my injuries are all on my right, writing side. Wait, wait, wait, this is the kicker: I haven’t ridden my bicycle in 5 days. It’s okay during the summer when I’m at home but here? I feel like my whole internal clock has to add on an extra 20 minutes to my schedule and everything seems to move much more slowly.

But as I wrote in the subject line, I’m trying to embrace walking. Because I don’t feel comfortable enough to ride for at least a week and I don’t bother to wait for the bus- I am walking across campus to class. There are a few things I’m starting to notice as I stroll to class every day though. First, when I stroll, I arrive to class late. Oops. But when I do stroll, I try to listen to the bustling construction and the morning conversations starting and the exhaust fuming and the [lucky b] cyclists pedaling to their next destination. When I biked, this was all a blur to me. Even at the stop lights, I was always focused on where I needed to go. Everything I passed was quickly seen and forgotten, there was just the start and the end, no in between.

As I walk from building to building, I notice that I take different routes; I take inner roads, cut across through buildings, and on my route, I see people I never get a chance to. In a bike, on my bike, I don’t usually stop. I’m usually hauling ass to my next destination and I never see people I know. (If I did, maybe they would know to get out of my way. Zing.) It’s been quite different in the last 5 days: I stop, I chat, I get to know people, I make a connection, even if just for 3 minutes.

I can’t decide whether I prefer to walk or bike. Speaking to friends, they’ve given me different perspectives on the subject. Going through it and experiencing it myself, I’ve gained my own perspective. I’d like to note how weird it is to be on the other side of the bike accident picture. See, my brother is notorious for getting into bike accidents (love you bro). To be the injure-ee instead of the sibling-getting-the-call, that’s also given me perspective. I never thought I would be the injure-ee and I wish my brother was here with me more than ever…so he could diagnose me and I wouldn’t have to go to Student Health Services…and cook for me too.

Lesson(s) of the day:
Regardless of this somewhat traumatizing event, I can’t wait to get back on my “horse”.
Also, pedestrians, please stop walking in the streets when you have a perfectly good sidewalk unless you are crossing the street.
Final also, maybe I will walk more…when the temperature drops. (But really, is that ever going to happen?)