[Note from the author: please keep in mind that I was probably twelve years old, naive, not brilliant, and young. So I give you permission to laugh at my stupidity but please don’t be mean.]

A few years ago, when we lived on the Air Force base in Boston, my brother got a new bike. It was something that someone on base was giving away and it was one of the BMX bikes with the pegs on the wheels in front and back.

I thought it was soooo cool and asked if I could ride it around the neighborhood for a minute. He said yes, and then went inside.

So we lived on this circle—and I was riding the bike around it. It was around six pm and it was getting to be a bit overcast. I don’t remember what I was wearing, but I know that my shoes had long laces. (Keep that in your mindskull.) As I neared the corner that would bring me to the street that my house was on, I remembered that there were cool pegs on the wheels!

Now let’s do some math. The pegs are connected to the front wheel/tire thing. The wheel is connected to the handlebars. If I put my left foot on the left peg and then lift my right foot to put it on the right peg, all my weight is going to go on the left side, right? See where I’m going?

So I did what I just explained—put my left foot on the peg and as I lifted my right foot from the pedal to put it on the peg, the handle bars jerked to the left and me and the bike fell to the side. But that’s not the funny part.

When I fell, I hit my face—specifically, my mouth and chin—on the curb of the sidewalk beside me. I felt something in my mouth and spat it out. It was a part of my front tooth. Safe to say that I freaked out. I had a cut on my chin, my lips were bleeding and immediately puffed up, I had a chipped tooth, and several scratches on my face.

And I was stuck partially under my bike.

My left shoelace (remember that part I mentioned about my long shoelaces?) had gotten stuck on the left pedal and my leg was kind of wrapped under my bike. So it was a very uncomfortable position and I couldn’t really easily reach over and untie it. So I sat there, waiting for someone to drive by or see me through their windows.

Now let me explain something about this part of base.

First: police often patrolled the area and neighborhoods—not because we were doing bad stuff, but just to be cautious, you know? It was around that time when they should have driven by on their usual route and they DIDN’T. And second: I lived in a busy neighborhood. So many kids and families lived on that circle, someone was always outside.

But not today! Everyone was inside. Why, you ask?

Because it started raining.

RAINING.

I was stuck under my bike, I looked like I’d been attacked by the sidewalk, and it was raining.

That’s when I started crying for help.

“Hello? Anyone? Can someone help me please?”

I’m not even kidding, I was so desperate, I didn’t care what people saw when they looked at me. The worst part was that I was SO freaking close to my house. But I was stuck.

After a few minutes, I tried pulling the bike onto my lap so that I could untie my shoelace. Eventually, I got it close enough and I picked up the stupid bike and walked to my house.

One of the funny parts was my neighbor, just around the corner, was packing up a big truck because they were moving. I was friends with their daughter, Devin, and she and her mom saw me and stared at me in shock. (Little did I know what I looked like.) “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” I said. At this point, I was so embarrassed and didn’t want to see anyone.

“Are you sure?” asked her mom. “Here, I can walk you to your house.”

“No, it’s fine, thanks.” My house was maybe ten yards away and I wasn’t in much pain, I just wanted to get inside.

I walked into the garage, kicked the stupid bike to the side—I was in denial that it was my fault—and walked inside the house. Mom and Dad just kind of looked at me like, “What the heck happened to our daughter? She was supposed to be just riding the bike.”

Yeah, I had a blast riding that bike.

Anyways, it was the very beginning of COVID and so the next day, to hide my chipped front tooth I wore a mask when I was out with my friends.

Yes, I got back on a bike the next day, but no, I did not do anything stupid. (You know, only riding no hands down a hill, but that it’s fine.)

Well, that’s just one embarrassing story that a lot of people don’t know about me! (Trust me when I say I have many more.)

I hope you enjoyed this post and, you know, feel free to share your own embarrassing story in token for mine! Thanks for reading!
~Willow