Falling is Not Such a Bad Thing

Early morning, just moments after the sun peeped out, my dad and me went out for my second lesson. I was feeling confident about myself now. It'll be more like practice today. Gosh! I already had the bike moving/running several times. I just need to be familiar with the grips while driving and practice brakes. That's it!

Boy was I wrong!

After a few rounds and some practice on brakes, changing gears and turning around corners, my dad rode at the back. After a few balancing awkward moments, I got it right and he told me to drive out the oval to practice speeding up the gear with him riding. It's always ironic that when everything is right, something goes wrong.

We were at a stop, waiting for a car to pass by before starting the engine again to turn around. It must have been the balance, the cockiness or something else that got me revving the bike too much and couldn't stop even when I was griping the front brake. I can hear my dad saying (screaming, more so) "use the brakes, brakes, brakes!" All
the while I was trying to but it was just making things worse. It was either we fall down the cliff or fall off the bike. We knew which is the better option. So we fell off the ground, my left leg under the bike. Liquid spilling out of the tank. It didn't register to me first that we were already on the ground. I felt my dad get up and that's the only time I tried to get up too. When we were both standing and the bike too, we realized the liquid is gas. Good thing it wasn't because the tank was damaged or open, just from the overflow pipe. The couple of rounds my dad drove the bike first. I was still pretty shaken. I can't see my legs yet (wearing jogging pants) but I can feel something is starting to feel sore.

When he felt that I'm well again to drive, he let me but didn't ride with me this time. He figured I'm not ready yet to take a rider.

I was able to circle the bigger and the smaller oval a few times. Someone (who's jogging around) told me to ease up a bit to which I only smiled. Didn't want to be distracted but in my mind I was saying, who can relax when you just nearly fell off the cliff? But I was not annoyed, actually glad for the concern and advise.

Then we went home.

This time I saw the bruises and didn't look good. One purplish-blue round on my lef leg, a few minor scratches on the left knee, two swollen parts on the right.

I didn't mind getting bruises. I was glad for the wake-up call. Just hope it wouldn't leave marks.