Breakfast at the Tricycle

There are several types of the cycle; the bicycle, tricycle, and unicycle. Each one having different support systems. The bicycle being the most popular using a two wheel system. I think it is the most common because it works the best for an adult. Then there is the tricycle using three wheels and ridden mainly by toddlers and children. And then what seems to be the most difficult of all is the unicycle, ridden with just one wheel. The unicycle seems to be the one that is ridden by the most talented people because it is the hardest. 


I can remember my first tricycle, it was bright red and I spent many a day riding it up and down my driveway. I loved that tricycle. It allowed me to go wherever I wanted, or so I thought until I saw the beautiful blue mountain bike that my older sister would fly around on. She would whiz past me, seeming like she could ride around the whole world. At this point the tricycle was not enough for me. I wanted to ride the magnificent two-wheeler like my sister. Now a person cannot just go from the tricycle to the bicycles, it just does not work that way. That is when the training wheels come into play. I ready with the help of training wheels to ride the two-wheeler. At first it was easy because I had the support of the training wheels so I could ride around thinking that I had achieved this feat of learning to ride a two wheeler and then at the same time realize that I had not yet completely accomplished anything. The training wheels soon became unnecessary. So they came off. At first trying to ride the two-wheeler without the training wheels was hard. I would wobble and stumble and then even fall, sometimes resulting in me not even wanting to get back on and try. But then eventually riding the two-wheeler without the support becomes easy and then the thought of training wheels does not even cross the mind of the rider. They become a dim memory of how things began and then fade as the new adventures come on just the two wheels. I became intrigued with the idea of riding off down the street with the wind blowing across my face, while the training wheels are left to lie in the dust. Then you have the few people who can ride the unicycle. Not everyone can. It requires focus and balance and not very many people possess those.

My story of learning how to ride a bike, relates more to my life now than it probably ever has. You see, just like the tricycle, most people form relationships in threes and first. That is how one of mine started. The tricycle at the beginning seems to be a wonderful thing and completely satisfying and then we see the treasure bicycle and we do not want the tricycle any more. So two people become the wheels and one person becomes the training wheels, knowing that somewhere down the road the bicycle won’t need them anymore. I am the training wheels and the bicycle has gone through the rocky stage trying to figure out how to ride without me and now they have. I have become a mere memory of what help start the relationship and I am left in the dust to watch the bicycle go on new adventures with their new found freedom.

I guess the question now is whether I find an new tricycle to be in and hope that I remain a wheel that doesn’t get shoved aside somewhere down the road, or decide to learn the difficult task of becoming a unicycle. I think that my fate at this moment is screaming unicycle. I will have to learn to focus and balance my travel by myself not with the help of another wheel or wheels. In the end, though people are more amazed with the unicycle than the bicycle. So from now on I am striving to learn the difficult task of riding the single wheeled life of the unicycle.