{"id":4995,"date":"2020-09-14T11:39:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T18:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/?p=4995"},"modified":"2020-09-14T11:39:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T18:39:51","slug":"its-like-riding-a-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2020\/09\/14\/its-like-riding-a-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"IT&#8217;S LIKE RIDING A BIKE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This summer, while camping, our three-year-old learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (<em>yes, prepare yourself for many \u201cproud mama bear\u201d blog posts from this principal<\/em>). Earlier in the summer, he was hesitant to try, enjoying the ease and speed with which he cruised the side streets of East Abbotsford on his orange bike with training wheels, worried about change and losing the success he had.<\/p>\n<p>But, on a sunny morning, with two parents who had time to give and a dedication to the cause, he officially rode his bike on two wheels, all by himself.<\/p>\n<h2>Riding With Glee<\/h2>\n<p>At first, it wasn\u2019t pretty. There was resistance. There were lots of wobbles and even some tears. But slowly and with his people supporting him, he figured it out. He could bike farther and with better balance. He felt more confident and didn\u2019t require one of us to jog beside him. Pretty soon we were biking alongside each other around the campground loop.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few weeks, he improved his skills. He learned to stop without falling. With the help of his uncle he learned to start by himself. Then thanks to some older cousins, he even figured out how to skid. Now we get daily requests to go for bike rides. He rides with glee, sometimes laughing out loud to himself as <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>the wind blows in his face and he experiences freedom, success, and the joy of accomplishing something hard.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Wobbles with Grace<\/h2>\n<p>Today, I\u2019m sitting at my new desk, in my new office, with a new job description and a new to-do list. I can\u2019t help but compare my upcoming journey as your principal with my son\u2019s experience of learning to ride his bike. I know that I have great people to support and mentor me, <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>but the training wheels have come off and I know there will be wobbles and probably some tears, up ahead<\/strong>.<\/span> I humbly ask for your prayers and your patience and grace as I will fall, dust myself off, and try again. I look forward to riding with glee.<\/p>\n<h2>Pedaling Forward<\/h2>\n<p>In many ways everyone in our ACS community is learning to ride a bike without training wheels this year. COVID-19 has brought us to a school year like none other. We are all learning to move forward without having figured out how to balance in this reality. Over the next few days, weeks, and months we will learn how to do school in new ways, <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>we will wobble, help each other, adjust, and slowly pick up speed as we pedal forward together in faith<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When I think about how my husband and I (like all parents) supported, encouraged, and cheered on our son as he learned to ride his bike, I hope and pray we can do the same for each other at ACS this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer, while camping, our three-year-old learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (yes, prepare yourself for many \u201cproud mama bear\u201d blog posts from this principal). Earlier in the summer, he was hesitant to try, enjoying the ease and speed with which he cruised the side streets of East Abbotsford on his orange <a href=\"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2020\/09\/14\/its-like-riding-a-bike\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":5001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-elementary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4995"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}