[(love of physics + mechanical inclination) + need for action] - fear

 

I believe Asa has found a sport that fits him like a glove... or fits him like a baseball glove didn't.  That boy can ride a bike.  Now, Jeff and I weren't exactly parents of the year and didn't have him out there super early, coaching him on how to ride without training wheels.  We were too busy teaching him how to fix his own cereal and use a floor sander.  But, he did indeed learn to ride.  And, within the first few weeks of riding a "big" bike, he was going down Grandmomma and Granddaddy's driveway, standing up on the seat.

I told him about racing a while back, and he was interested.  Well, for some reason it came up again and I realized how well it fit with him.  I had to get him to that track.  I found him a bike on Craigslist.  A little RedLine mini that fits him very well.  We got him a helmet, that almost cost as much as the bike.  Then, we hit the track.  I thought it could have gone one of two ways.  The first way was that he would look out at all of those berms and jumps and that starting gate and totally change him mind.  Asa has a funny thing about thinking he isn't good enough at something... even when he isn't yet supposed to be good at it.  Well, Asa went with my second way... he ate it up, was bouncing around and totally ready to get out there.  So, out he went.

Now, I have ridden this track.  Not well, mind you, but I did it.  So, I am able to appreciate the basic level of "umph" it takes just to get up and around everything you have to... without crashing.  Asa was great.  The first time we took him, he didn't raise his bottom off of the seat, but he did ride the whole track, which is awesome.  The next time we went, I had him up off the seat a little, and by the time we had to leave, he was off the seat the entire way around... over and over again.

What I love is an exhausted kid, an injured kid, who is limping around holding his knees and asking me when he can go back at the same time.  That is success right there.  So, I'm sure we will have more posts regarding Asa's blossoming new sport.  A sport that I love, that I spent my entire childhood watching at the track, watching Scoot and Pete at the practice track in the backyard of Gram's house, and even jumping in the big van on crazy trips for Nationals.  I looked up to my uncles and I knew they were great at racing, and I loved to watch them do it... and I loved just to be the niece who came along.