The Daily Commute

Posted By: Tanner Brooks
Posted On: March 30th, 2017
Attending:

Unless any of the other scholars have biked a marathon during their time in Ireland, I think I have broken a record for most miles biked by any SCL scholar in history.  Every day, whether it be for practice or for coaching, I hop on my bike and hit the road to travel across town to Neptune Stadium.  Its about a 35-minute bike ride each way, and is fairly flat by Irish standards.  I have grown to truly love the trek, but it is not always easy.  First off, my bike is a mountain bike, which is not made for road biking and is a lot tougher on the legs when traveling distances.  This makes for quite the workout before and after practice, and has actually left my legs in pretty good shape over the year, but is still not something I look forward to after five hours in the gym coaching and training all night.  The hardest part about the bike ride is the weather.  On the few days that it has been warm and sunny, the bike ride is incredible.  I follow a nice little path along the river, filled with fields of horse and happy runners jogging with their dogs.  Yet the majority of the time, it looks more like a scene from The Day after Tomorrow and I am struggling to peddle against stiff head-winds in a torrential downpour of icy rain.  We don’t finish practice until about 10:00 pm every night and those long lonely bike rides can get very depressing in the rain and wind.  However, after adjusting to this schedule after a few months, I have found profound solitude and self-less enjoyment during this time.  It has gone from something that I dreaded, to something that I yearn for on a day to day basis (maybe not on the rainy days).  It is a time I use to clear my head, and forget all the daily stresses that schoolwork, or basketball, or really anything that may have brought troubles into my life.  I plug my headphones in, and let my mind wander for the journey across town.  Life can be so complicated and stressful, but its things like this that we need to incorporate into our every day life to remind ourselves how truly simple things are.  This bike ride every day reminds me how lucky I am to be in this situation, and how truly lucky I am for the friends and family that I have in my life.  Even though I am definitely going to enjoy the convenience of driving my car when I am home this summer, I know that I will miss this bike ride, and all the simplicity that comes with it. 

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