Day 10

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

I was a sheltered kid. I had 3 older sisters. For years, we lived with or very close to several members of my extended family. I was disabled and for much of my childhood, I was constantly reminded of how I was different.

There were three things that I was attached to as a kid.

1. My smurf big wheels.
2. My road bike with training wheels that didn’t look like training wheels.
3. The matching VW rabbit pedal cars I shared with my cousins.

Why those three things? It’s simple. When I was riding one of these, I was just like everyone else. It did not matter that my body wasn’t the same or that I was distinctly the same but very different from the kids around me. On the bikes and in the car, I was the same as everyone around me.

The same thing is true today. It looks a little different now. But, I still love riding a bike and driving a car. The internet and the various forms of connection it can cultivate created a community where I am relatively unfiltered and express myself safely.

The pedal cars were well used and well loved. We rode them until the axels came undone, and we turned them into Flintstones style cars.

Similarly, the smurf big wheel was ridden until the wheels split apart at the seams. If memory serves, it was ridden long past that point.

I outgrew the bike and upgraded it to trikes/mountain bikes/bikes that go nowhere.

I appreciate the feelings that these objects gave me. I didn’t realize it until writing this post, but those things gave me a sense of independence and self-reliance that my family tried to snuff out.