I Broke Myself

Before last weekend I felt that the most significant changes in life took long periods of time. Emotions, physical strength, career and personal growth all take time, I thought. Then a significant event happened that changed the course of the next couple months in just a few seconds.

I was riding down a trail and closing in on the bottom of the mountain. I had already made it through multiple steep, rocky chutes, and jumped off some precarious drop offs. Now, speeding down the ski run, the trail veered left into the trees.

I entered the trees with confidence. I was not nervous or concerned that I was going too fast. That was the problem. I had only ridden this trail once beforehand, and this time I had completely misjudged my speed.

Despite feeling like I could ride anything earlier in the run, the trail had different plans. I don’t remember exactly how I got flung off my bike, but I did. I landed shoulder first onto a log on the side of the trail. I remember thinking, “wow I hit my shoulder really hard, this could be bad”.

It was bad. “Displaced mid left clavicle fracture” is what the XRay record says.

The second I left my bike until the second I hit the log was only a few seconds at most. A few seconds changed my immediate future, and changed my perspectives.

No more mountain bike racing this fall. No long hours on the road. No more early, below freezing mornings. No racing down the best courses Colorado has to offer.

Is that so bad? Sure, I am bummed but, now I can focus my energy on improving the academic side of my life. Instead of juggling three things - racing, school, and work - I won’t be so thinly spread. I can focus on school and gradually get back to work at the restaurant.

Last spring I found my passion for journalism and storytelling, which inspired me to create this blog/website you are reading right now. This fall, with my free time unable to be spent riding, I will dive head into my journalism. I will write, report, and edit with the tenacity that I previously would have approached a bike race.

Stuff happens, but life presents silver linings, so I’m not too sad about being broken.