The Unicycle Story

 When I was in 6th grade we went home for Christmas Break. This was at a time when we still had Christmas break and not Winter Break. 

When we returned at the beginning of January my friend Damon Dumas was riding a unicycle that he'd gotten for Christmas. It was the cheap, red, Toys R Us, unicycle but he'd ridden it the 3 blocks to our school and was  demonstrating a certain level of competence. I was a bit jealous and envious and wanted to show him up.

I set in to begging and pleading with my mom to get the BEST unicycle out there, The Schwinn with the pneumatic tire and chromed galore! I was very excited and grabbed it with anticipation as I was about to show them all how cool I was! Well, I sucked.

It took me about 10 minutes to realize that riding a unicycle was REALLY hard and different. There was no YouTube to find a video to explain how to do it and i was not going to ask anyone for help. There really was no one to ask as Damon had moved and I was stuck with myself. I worked at it on and off for a few weeks but eventually just forgot. Every time I went in the garage I saw my failure sitting there, shiny chrome and flat tire reminding me of how hard it was and my lack of push. I did eventually conquer the unicycle after about 6 months but not with any level of expertise. 

Years later I realized that there were lessons to be learned.

1) I had not witnessed the work that my friend had put into learning.

2) I had assumed that because he could do it I would kill it

3) I am not nearly as good as my ego thinks

4) One needs to have the will and stamina to set a goal and chip away at it. No matter how hard it is you have to stick with it until you can reach success.