Cycling is Home.

We are so excited for our first guest writer feature, and kicking it off is our own customer service reprentative, Samantha! Queer representation is super important every month, as all of our customers should feel represented by us, and we are honored that Sam has offered up her words regarding a topic she really cares about.

Cycling is a great and easy way to get excercise, fresh air, and have some fun with friends, and Sam goes onto detail why cycling is so important to her. Some do it to save gas money or to lower their carbon footprint, and others do it, well, because it makes them feel good. Read on for Sam's personal experience regarding cycling!

"Anyone remember the late 1980s? I do, well, some of it. I remember going to spend time with my paternal grandparents in their small town every summer. I remember my cousins cheating at video games then getting mad when I’d win anyway. I remember movie nights with them at my Grandparents house, and one movie night is still quite vivid in my thinning cache of memories: me and my cousins piling into Grandma’s car and being as calm as we could be while she drove us to the video rental store. The video store wasn’t a large chain, just a musty room with super random movies in beat up dust jackets. We didn’t have to search for a movie because my cousins knew what they wanted to rent before we stepped off of Grandma’s astro-turfed front porch. They had scoffed at me when I told them I hadn’t seen what they grabbed like I was missing out on the cinematic masterpiece of the decade, which it definitely was not. All the way to the store I had tried to argue for a different movie; I wasn’t too keen on bicycles at the moment because my shins were still healing from when I tried to do donuts with my bmx bike on the gravel driveway in between my grandparents cars. Sadly, I was outnumbered so the only VHS copy of Rad at the store came home with us that night. 

We ended up watching it twice. TWICE. I loved Rad so much that it got me back on my bicycle the very next day and I haven’t looked back. I don’t own a car…yeah, I know. But, due to living in Chicago I don’t feel like I need to and I ride a bicycle almost everywhere, unless the temperature is in the single digits. I mean, I have to draw the line at cold temperatures like that because it really hurts my face. A few years ago I purchased Rad from a streaming platform and have watched it more times than I’d like to admit. It still brings me so much joy. It’s not a great movie, maybe not even a good movie but it’s one of my favorites. There is a sentimentality to it, having watched it at my grandparent’s house, the one place that was consistent for me throughout my childhood. My parents were both in the Army so we moved quite a bit, then when they divorced I would go back and forth to different apartments, and townhouses my mom or dad lived in, but when I went to Grandma and Pappy’s house it was always the same, it was always there. It was always a home. I could be free there, I could relax because there was always going to be that house to come back to. And maybe some of that shaped the way I feel about Rad and even the way I feel when I’m on one of my bicycles now. 

I realize that cycling isn’t for everyone, and that’s cool, it would be boring if we were all the same but for me, when I’m on my bicycle, there is a simple and pure joy coursing through me. I love pedaling with the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, playing ‘duck duck goose’ with cars stuck in traffic (just in my head of course). Makes me feel like a kid again, a kid with a big goofy grin on their face. Whether I’m coasting down a mountainside in New Mexico, pushing through muddy swamps in Florida, or dodging open doors and delivery drivers parked in bike lanes in Chicago, when I’m on a bicycle I smile and sing and pedal my ass off, like Cru Jones riding through the lumberyard, I’m having fun, I’m free and it’s home. 

Samantha Crane (she/they) is the Founder/Editor-in-Chief of drip literary magazine. Her work can be read in Dream Pop Press, True Chili, Variant Literature, and HASH journal.