I love to bicycle. I guess I always knew I loved it. I have owned and ridden a bike since I was little and for some reason my dad always made it a point of pride and respect that someone have a bike and treat it nice. So I did. I recently bought a small mountain bike. The weather got nice and I got bored and sick of being inactive. So I started to ride, just a little bit at first, but enough to make me remember being a kid...
I grew up in the rural mid-west. You could bike through my entire town in about 30 minutes. I could go to anyone's house, I could go to the store and the park. I was independent on my bike, like the first time you get your licence and can drive anywhere. The difference being that I didn't need to worry about gas or maps, because I had no agenda. I remember complaining incessantly to my parents that I had nothing to do in that God forsaken town, but now I see the wonderful independence it afforded me and the time and space and quiet to just be me and think about what that meant. I'm a Scorpio and I guess that makes me more self sufficient than most, but I would like to credit my bicycle and that tiny village I grew up in...
Back to the future. I started biking again and it made my butt really sore at first. I got used to it about 3 rides in and I was only biking 3 or 4 miles. By the second week I was biking 7 or 8 miles on trails and in parks and out of my neighborhood. I even biked to work. I live on a Mesa, and for everyone who lives no where near the mountains, a mesa is an elevated flat piece of land usually surrounded by steep drop offs or cliffs. To get anywhere from my house I have to descend these great drop offs. I'm a very anxious person and speed is something I have always worried about. Too fast. So going down hill at high rates on my bike was scary for me. Biking with a friend one day, we were descending the hill, and my friend who is much older and wiser than I did not hold her brakes steady as we rode. I saw her in the distance looking up to the sky speeding along and continuing to accelerate ever faster. And I let go. It was liberating to say the least. It was freedom from work, from home, from simple structures in our lives that are only mildly restricting. It was the best therapy I had ever had as an adult.
I own very few bras. I own 2 sports bras to be exact and I use them quite a bit living out here, hiking and what not. I found myself without a clean bra that day. So I put on my shirt and got on my bike and rode and that's when bra-less biking became my new therapy. I often find that older women, liberated, care free women who know who they are and what they want out of life often go bra- less. This was never my cup of tea. I always felt naked without one, as I am sure most women agree with. Biking with nothing but my t-shirt on may seem odd or even painful for some women but I enjoy it and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to feel a little freer, a little bit more part of the world.
Bra-less Bicycling will be my record of all the new and exciting things I learn about and experience on this new post-grad journey into adulthood. Wish me luck.
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