#RealTalk: Why Every Student Who Lives on Campus Should Have a Bicycle

     These are the stories of valuable lessons, hacks, and pro tips I've learned in the three years (so far) that I've been in college. Today's story: the importance of the humble bicycle.

    I've had a bicycle pretty much my entire life. For the first several years, it was a bit of a one-sided relationship: I cold have ridden it just fine, but once the training wheels came off, it was a little too scary for my childhood brain. Even once I had passed that hurdle, riding my bike was still a bit of an ordeal. I struggled to shift gears, was nervous at stoplights, etc., etc. 

    This all changed when I moved to campus (University of Central Oklahoma) in 2017. I started using my bike almost every day, quickly gained confidence while riding, and even dared to race myself down the sidewalk at night, just to see how fast I could go. 

    I started exploring the area around campus my freshman year, but only went in one direction, about a mile or two down the street from campus. I was absolutely, positively, 200% broke at the time, but I still enjoyed window-shopping and doing my makeup for free at Ulta. That was also when I discovered a love of light purple glitter eye shadow :). Sophomore year, the adventure expanded as I started going further away from campus and in a different direction, discovering two Hobby Lobbys, a Mardel, and a Tuesday Morning, all within a few miles of campus!! Cue the chorus of angels... And none of this would have been possible if I didn't have my bicycle on campus with me. So here are my top reasons why you, too, should have a bicycle on campus with you.

Reason #1: Fast, Easy Transportation 

Probably the number one reason why I love having my bicycle on campus is the speed it gives me. I can put off leaving my room until the absolute last minute and still make it to class or work on time. This has come in handy many, many times, especially on horrendously cold days. I have also been able to ride my bike to the store and back in the hour or so between Sunday church and my Sunday night shift at work, thanks to a trail in a park by campus. Riding a bicycle is also much easier, in my opinion, than walking everywhere, especially for someone with shin splints and sore joints (the results of more than a decade of dancing. Yay!). Even if you don't have any complaints about walking, it's much easier to coast home on a bicycle than it is to take all... those... steps, especially when carrying a heavy backpack. Riding my bike around campus has also made me feel safer than walking, since in theory it would be much harder for a shady character to catch me in a dark alley if I'm on my bike and he's on foot.

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Reason #2: Carry All the Things

Bicycles are amazing in their ability to carry many, many different things. I started out with a wicker or wooden basket on the front of my bike which had been there since about my freshman year of high school. After a crash the last week of the year, the basket dramatically fell off, and we replaced it with a metal one that could detach at will and be carried into all the stores I went into the following year. I got so many compliments about my super cool bike basket, and it came in handy many times. I could also hang shopping bags on the handlebars of my bike, enabling me to carry even more things. Unfortunately, this metal basket fell off my bike several times, getting dented in the process, and eventually the device that connected the basket to the front of the bike was damaged. This year, we installed a new rack on the back of my bike, and I got two bags, one waterproof and one more decorative, to put on each side. I like this system the best so far; it allows me to carry even more things, without fighting with the shopping bags banging against my legs all the way home. 

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Reason #3: Cost Effective and Low Maintenance

Unlike most people my age, I wasn't super eager to get my driver's license. In fact, I didn't even get my permit until I was sixteen, and got my license only three years later. Living on campus meant I didn't get much time to practice and gain experience with driving, and I'm still not super confident, even now. I still don't have a car after three years of college, and frankly, I don't really need one. I couldn't give you the exact comparison between owning a car versus owning a bicycle, but I can tell you that it more than pays for itself. I haven't had to worry about gas, buying a parking permit, or paying for insurance, not to mention the potential maintenance issues that cars have. What's more, I can park wherever I want, and when issues do come up, they're much easier to fix than they would be on a car. Don't believe me? Check out this post where I learned how to change a flat tire! Much easier than it looks. One less thing to call Daddy about...XD

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Shout out to my dad, he's amazing :)

Reason #4: Built-In Exercise

One of the things I've started to notice since I stopped taking dance classes is how difficult it is to stay relatively fit and healthy. Even though I started visiting UCO's Wellness Center last year, it's still been difficult to motivate myself to stand up, leave my nice cozy dorm room, and go work out. Luckily for me, riding my bike everywhere has given me a valuable opportunity to still get some exercise in. Going to the stores I love has now become a mini adventure, as I've learned to figure out where I am and where I'm going, plus develop the stamina to ride a whole three to five miles round trip. Yeah, exercise!!

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Reason #5: Personal Bubble

This one might not be as meaningful to everyone, but for me, riding my bike has given me my own personal bubble. I can stick my earbuds in, jump on my bike, and quite literally leave the rest of the world in my dust. This has been quite useful for avoiding the various persuasive groups, e. g. Mormon missionaries or environmental advocates, that would have been harder to elude on foot. It also gives me some phone-free quite moments in between classes, which is about the closest thing you can get to being truly alone on a campus with thousands of people.

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So, if you're a college student living on campus, I highly recommend that you invest in a bicycle (or bring your teenager-hood bike up from home if you can). It will change your LIFE! Not really, but still. Hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you next time on #realtalk :).

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Absolute Noob, Episode 1: Avocados

This is the first in a series of posts that will explore life skills that people like me, who have spent their entire lives focusing on being "book smart," learn how to adult. Things that the recipe books and instruction manuals don't include, because the writers assume that everyone already knows. Things that will be useful to know when the parents are no longer around. So, without further ado, here is...

How to Chop an Avocado (for the absolute noob)

Step One: Cut the avocado in fourths. Use a knife that is about this size:

Rotate the avodado, making four cuts.

Step Two: Peel the avocado. You can peel one side, then the other, but it may be easier to peel it all at once depending on how ripe it is. 

Step Three: Cut one side of the avocado into small, squareish pieces, first one way, then the other. You should then be able to slide them off the pit and into a bowl. Repeat on the other side. 

Ta-dah! All done! Now I can (someday far in the future when I have an apartment with an actual kitchen) I can cut up my own avocados to make tacos. Mmmmmm...

Absolute Noob, Episode 2: Flat Tires (bicycle)

    I walked out of work today after a six hour shift, hoping to jump on my bicycle and ride home. When I got there, everything seemed normal... Until I started rolling away from my parking spot, to the tune of a flopping, squishy sound. That's when I realized it was time to call Daddy; I had a flat tire. 

    This has happened several times in the three years I've lived on campus, but today was the first time that I actually learned how to fix it. Here's how:

*This post is sponsored by the Brian Decker Bicycle Repair Foundation*

Step One: Remove tire and wheel from bicycle. My dad had already done this by the time I got back from my room. Don't worry, we'll see it in reverse later.

Step Two: Remove the tire and inner tube from the wheel. We used these little blue things (that I can no longer remember the name of-- cue text to Daddy XD) to take the blue tires off the wheel. Another thing that Daddy did first was take off the cap (little black thing on the inside of the wheel) so that the tire and inner tube can be removed.

Step Three: Remove the inner tube from the inside of the tire. We examined the tube and found two small cracks next to the piece that attaches the inner tube to the wheel. This means that I didn't ruin my brand new tires in less than a week, hooray!!

Step Five: Examine the inside of the tire to make sure nothing is embedded in it. This confirmed that I didn't damage my tire when I accidentally ran over some glass shards earlier this week. Hooray again!

Step Six: Put the new inner tube back between the tire and the wheel. Start by inserting the metal piece through the hole on the inside of the wheel, then move around to the rest. Next, push the edges of the tire (the little brown part) back under the metal edge of the wheel. 

Step Eight: Put the wheel back on the bike. 

Lift the bike up with one hand, and set the center of the wheel inside the notch on the axle (the two light-colored metal pieced on the front of the bike). Make sure that the black handle on the front wheel is on the same side as the back wheel.

Use the black handle on the center of the tire to tighten the wheel into place. When there's resistance in the handle, that means it's tight enough, and you can push the handle up to lock it into place.

Finally, on my bike, we had to take off the brake in order to fix the tire. To put the brake back on, push the two skinny metal bars together with thumb and forefinger, then push the little black piece over the end of the brake wire. Ta-dah! All fixed!

    After seeing how relatively easy it is to fix a flat tire, I decided that I want to start keeping a couple of extra inner tubes with me on campus. Next time this happens, I can fix it myself!

Want more? check out #RealTalk: Why Everyone Who Lives on Campus Should Have a Bicycle

Serenade

image credit: NYC Ballet

"I lift my eyes to the mountains; where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

Psalm 121:1-2

    Serenade  was the first ballet that famous choreographer George Balanchine made after moving from Russia to the United States. Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet and well known choreographer (the versions most ballet fans know of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker all come from him), said the ballet was inspired by ballet students looking out the studio window at the moonlight. 

    The ballet itself, especially the opening scene, is peaceful and dreamy. For a full minute, the curtain is closed, the entire setting comprised of the unhurried string music of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C Major. Then the curtain rises, and the next thirty seconds or so see rows of ballet dancers, dressed in light blue skirts and bathed in soft blue light. Standing in the most basic ballet position, with one hand extended upward, they focus their gazes on the light coming from stage right. 

    I saw this ballet in 2016, just before auditioning for the dance program at my dream college. The scene above brought to mind one of my favorite passages, Psalm 121: "I lift my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth." Recreating the scene, I can imagine the light trailing in from an open window, a light breeze blowing through my hair. It reminds me of quiet moments spent with the Lord, and of various moments in my life when I was dealing with sadness and disappointment and pulled this image to my mind, crying out to the Lord and seeking Him for help. The light becomes a symbol of His presence, close enough to touch. The music represents waiting in quiet before Him.

    As my relationship with Christ has grown in trust and intimacy, coming to Him in prayer becomes easier and more enjoyable. This song has become the soundtrack for my prayers, and the image of standing in that scene, focusing my eyes and heart on the Lord, has become a symbol of that relationship. Whatever I go through, I know I can always find help in the Lord. 

Read the rest of Psalm 121

Best of Tchaikovsky: Spotify

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About Me

After going to church literally since before I was born, I was saved at dance class when I was nine years old. It was the last week of class, and the teacher gave us the "Jesus talk" at the end of the night, then asked if anyone wanted to pray with her. My hand shot up almost before I realized what was happening; I had been feeling the pull of the Holy Spirit and was almost just waiting for someone to ask me about it. I can specifically remember praying to ask Jesus into my heart, promising to “live for You, and dance for You.” Nothing had ever felt so right.

I started out as a super enthusiastic follower of Christ, but began to lose steam when my attempts to invite my classmates to church were turned down again and again. In middle school I began to face doubt and fear that kept me from sharing my faith and from growing as much as I could have; I even began to doubt my salvation. After recommitting my life at Falls Creek the summer after eighth grade, I continued to try and grow in Him, but I was still relying too much on my own ability to accomplish all the things and be "good enough" and not enough on the grace and power of Christ. This changed starting in eleventh grade, when I met an older and more mature believer who began to mentor and disciple me. That was the point when I really started to grow as a believer. After I graduated high school, I began to seek a community of other believers, and after months of asking and waiting, I finally began to find that at the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry).

My second semester in college, I went through a season of disappointment and isolation. I auditioned for the dance program at my school and was told, politely, that I did not have enough skill or experience to complete the degree I wanted. This forced me to reconsider everything I had planned for my life for the last ten years or so, and I was understandably shaken up by it. I also felt very alone at that point as my roommate moved out due to health problems and I had few real friends. I came as close in that season as I ever have to being really, truly depressed, and felt that there was no one that I could really talk to about it.

In the midst of that season, however, God began to grow my trust in Him in a very real way. It was as though He was telling me to just be brave enough to trust Him for one more day as I forced myself to complete dance classes that now seemed useless to me and was surrounded by all the people who were "good enough" to complete the program by which I had been rejected. And the way the God communicated this immensely powerful message to me was through my favorite artist in the history of the universe, Adam Young (better known as Owl City).

In the months that followed, more and more of my fandoms (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and various artists) began to show links to Biblical themes and truths. Things that I already knew, verses that I had memorized years ago, and stories that I could repeat from memory, suddenly took on a new meaning as my brain, and the Holy Spirit, connected them to songs and stories that I had grown to love. Because, deep down, the songs that we sing about our love or loss or longing, the stories we write about adventure or romance or revolution, all point back to God.

The purpose of this blog is simple: to express the connections that I have found between “secular” fandoms and spiritual truths, and to encourage you, my fellow fan-people, to do the same. I pray that the Lord will speak to your heart, whether you believe in Him or not, in ways you never thought possible.