Age 13 is odd for a girl. Too old to be treated like a child, too young to be treated like an adult. One minute you’re trying on make-up and the next you’re talking to your stuffed animals. Caught between two worlds, the desire for freedom is palatable, but not within reach.
But if you have a bike, you can escape and have the illusion of being free….at least for a while.
I rode my bike everywhere as a kid. To Burger King. To the community pool. To the candy store. To Harriet’s house. Wherever it would take me, I’d go. On my bike I was carefree and happy.
Different times call for different measures, and now most young kids don’t ride miles away from home on their own on their bikes. In our neck of the woods, we have a rail trail which is perfect for family rides. No matter how much I slow down, my daughter seems to hang back just far enough so that people passing us by wouldn’t know we were together. It’s her way of having some freedom of her own, I suppose.
Here she is in a moment of contemplation on the trail.
Happy riding.
xo Robin