Personal Narrative

Rishi Vanga

Mr. Adam Howells

English 9H

24 October 2017

My First Time Without Training Wheels

Have you ever bought a new bike or a new toy as a kid? If you have, then you know the feeling of excitement that you get when you first try it out. It’s that feeling that makes all logic and reason fly out of your head, leaving you with pure joy. As I realized, that feeling isn’t always a good thing and sometimes it can have very negative effects. If I had stopped and thought through my actions for a minute rather than letting myself get overjoyed then I might have prevented this tragic accident.

For months my dad had been trying to teach me how to ride a bike. After nearly four months, just weeks after my sixth birthday, I managed to ride a bike without training wheels up and down our street. As soon as I did that, my dad grew tired of spending an hour every day helping me learn how to ride a bike. So, in order to get me to stop bugging him to take me biking every day, he told me that I was ready to ride a bike alone and he went out and bought me a brand new one without training wheels. As soon as she heard, my mom exclaimed “What do you think you’re doing?!” From the beginning, she knew that I wasn’t ready to ride a bicycle alone yet.

Regardless, my dad went and bought me a new bike. As soon as he brought it home, I was eager to ride it. Even though it was already 6:00 P.M. and the next day was a school day, I begged him to let me ride it just once before I ate dinner and went to sleep. Finally, after a few minutes of pleading, begging, crying, and generally just annoying my dad, he relented. I immediately took my bike and brought it out to the driveway. Just before I got onto it, my mom saw me and asked “where do you think you’re going?”. In response I said “I am a big boy and I am going to ride my new bicycle without training wheels.” Worriedly, my mom responded “ Are you sure that is a good idea? Maybe it would be better to put the training wheels back on for a while. Naturally, being the ignorant child I was, I didn’t listen and I regret that mistake to this day.

Heedless of my mom’s shouts and threats I rode my bike off our driveway and onto the sidewalk. I biked all the way up our street and turned around. My house happens to lie near the bottom of a small hill. As I was biking back down the hill, I began to go a little too fast. I was unable to stop my bike as I went past my house. After I passed it, I attempted to pull the brakes and stop, but rather than slowing down the way I planned, the front wheel of the bike locked in place. The back wheel pitched upwards and I was flung onto the sidewalk. As I hit the ground, blinding pain shot through my left shoulder. I was too stunned to think or even cry. Soon after my shoulder, my mouth bashed into the cement, leaving me with the taste of dirt and blood on my lips. My foot somehow managed to get caught in the back wheel and the bicycle ended up flipping onto me, knocking all the air out of my chest. I don’t know what I would have done if my mom hadn’t been there, watching me like a hawk.

As soon as my mom watched me catapult off my bike, she sprinted toward me, helped me to my feet, and carried me home. She kept asking me if I was alright as she carried me inside and lay me down on our couch. My mom quickly rushed to get antiseptics and bandages as my dad stood nearby, confused as to what had happened. Eventually, after she finished cleaning up my cuts, her tone changed completely. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” she shouted at both my dad and me. “Who knows what could have happened! You’re lucky I was there. No more riding your bike without training wheels!”. Eventually, she stopped ranting long enough to tell me that I would have to stay home for the next few days. Aside from my crying I was delighted that I didn’t have to go to school, but I had forgotten one very important thing, my bike. The next morning, it was nowhere to be found.