The golden tips of San Francisco’s infamous bridge pierced its way through the thick layer of fog blanketing the bay. It was a foggy San Francisco morning at Crissy Field. Cold droplets of morning dew balanced on the blades of the bright green grass. A fishy aroma of the sea mixed with the smell of coffee from the ‘Warming Hut’. Interrupting the tranquility of the early hours was the rattle of my rickety training wheels zooming over the gravelly path. Today was the day that 5 year old me was going to learn how to ride my bike. All by myself. With no assistance from the training wheels.
My dad, an avid biker himself, excitedly removed my training wheels and instructed me to get on and try to ride. I got on my tiny bike, pushed down on the pedals and began to ride. Plop. I successfully rode for a few feet before slowly toppling over. Frustrated and knee bloodied, I began to whine. At this point, my dad told me something that has resonated with me for the rest of my life: “falling is learning”. He swiftly helped me up, resituated me on the bike where I gave a valiant second attempt. 6 feet. Plop. 10 feet. Plop again. Each time I fell I tried to adjust. Do I need to pedal harder? Do I need to stay more upright? How do I stay balanced? I slowly improved until eventually the motion clicked. I was flying. I learned a skill I would never need to relearn.
In fact, I learned two skills, the second being more important to my life. I internalized what my dad told me. Falling is learning. This simple statement he repeated while teaching me to ride a bike without training wheels began to apply itself in all sorts of situations.
When I was 11, I left all of my friends and my notoriety as a good soccer player in the US, and I moved to Paris, France. The level of competition was far superior to what I was used to. I went from being a star player to barely playing at all. Time and time again, I failed to make the cut for the A team that I aspired to play with. At times it was devastating to get rejected after weeks of taking the metro to my soccer practice alone. Upon return to the US however, my relentless attempts and failures had made me a much better player. In high school I was voted MVP of the league. Learning from my shortcomings in France led me to success and satisfaction in the US.
While searching for a new challenge, I discovered rock climbing. To succeed in climbing, you must always be balanced. It’s a game of exerting the perfect balanced amounts of pressure to have a precise amount of friction to counteract the force of gravity, constantly trying to rip you from the wall. The only way to learn this abstract dance with gravity….falling. What made me fall? Was I not applying enough pressure? Was I in the wrong body position? Each time I fell, I either made a physical or technical adjustment. Falling is learning.
I firmly believe that the best way to learn is to experience. Life, like most things, is balanced. Good and bad both exist and bad things – failures, setbacks, falling – will inevitably occur. When you fall, do not stay down and accept defeat like 5 year old me initially did. Think about how you can change the outcome, and try again. It is for this reason that I decided to attend Cal Poly. The school’s motto, ‘learn by doing’ presents essentially the same message that my dad instilled in me while helping me back on the seat of my miniscule bicycle. Try. Fail. Adjust. Learn. Persist.
Finding Balance 