Dream Chasers

I had dreams, or were they delusions? I remember getting my first box of decks, hoodies and stickers in high school and thinking “This is it! I am on my way to skateboarding and traveling for the rest of my life.” Wrong or kind of wrong. Many of my high school friends chased the dream of living in California and skateboarding for a living. I chose the safe alternative: college. There I met skaters who chased the dream to California. I graduated college and had to leave the country (totally another story). Upon return I settled into a ‘normal’ life of jobs, family, friends, bills, hobbies, dog and cat. Recently an old friend who chased his skateboarding dream -- and lived it in California for the last 10 years while traveling to Europe and S. America -- moved back to BoCoMo to finish his education and reintegrate into ‘normal’ life. He got me back riding that useless wooden toy again, and I love it. This Friday we went to Moberly, of all places, to ride a new indoor park. Hearing all his stories of traveling, skating and life had me laughing and envious that I never had the balls to take a gamble.

Wrecking my knee on Friday night and staying up past my bed time to ride a useless wooden toy had me struggling on a 3-hour gravel ride with dream chasers Tenacious P (going back? it is in writing...), Fish, BH and Baby USA (who is currently chasing/living a dream and does not know it).

Then Sunday was a Bubba Race, which consisted of trying to figure out where I fit in. Fish said race the B’s, Butthead said the A’s. The person at registration looked at my license, Cat 5, and gave me a look up and down and said “C’s.” I took the middle road and followed Fish’s wisdom of B’s. Who lines up for races 15 minutes in advance? Cross racers, that’s who. I started at the very back which was fine because I had no expectations and did not want to fight for position in the first corner. The course was up and down with lots of soggy energy-sucking sections. I had no idea where I was at the end, but I guess next week I will probably be the only Cat 5 in the A’s. (This race report has nothing to do with dream chasing because I have no delusions of where I fit in to this plum-smuggling world of two-wheeled testosterone fun.)

So remember all you dream chasers. Normal life is here any time you want to come back. Remember that for each dream chaser there are heaps of people not chasing their dreams and living vicariously through you.