Lose the training wheels — bike therapy
by Beth
In my other life, I’m a writing teacher. I teach a weekly memoir-writing class for senior citizens in Chicago, and I give seminars on writing at libraries and conferences.
After a writing seminar at the Oak Park Public Library last week, a teenager came up to chat.
“I have a poem published on the internet,” she said.
I was impressed, but I was busy signing books. I didn’t have time to ask what the poem was about. “Send me the link,” I told her.
She did.
Her poem is published on a Web site called Lose the Training Wheels.
It turns out the teenager is an identical twin. She and her sister were born prematurely, though, and the teen writer participated in a bike therapy program at Easter Seals DuPage.
Lose the Training Wheels describes the poem — and the Easter Seals DuPage program — like this:
The author is Jessica, who at age 11, attended an adapted bike camp sponsored by Easter Seals DuPage in 2003, (a suburb west of Chicago).
When a child is able to master riding a bicycle — and without those dreaded training wheels — the benefits become instantly evident. The child smiles, and the child desires to get onto the bike to ride around. Self-esteem experiences perhaps an exhilarating lifetime high. Humiliation is vanquished.
Here’s Jessica’s poem. I think it’s great:
Learning to Ride — A Poem About Bike Riding
By JessicaUnconquerable, undefeated, and proud
The wheels turning,
People whizzing past my face,
I wanted to learn
I wanted to ride
But I just couldn’tMy pink bike with “balance wheels”
People laughing,
As I felt hurt down deep withinI tried and tried but fell
It was frustrating
But I got back up again and tried again and againFinally, the pink bike — the “balance wheels” gone forever
I felt like a mighty king at the top of a mountain,
Who was now unconquerable, undefeated, and proud.
I’d be proud, too. Ride on, Jessica!