I Was Wrong about Skateboarding

It seems like this is the month of admitting that I’m wrong about everything. There is something beautiful about being wrong and expanding your mind to possibilities you had previously not been able to imagine.

But, enough waxing poetic, what was I wrong about this time?

Well, in my original post about why I wanted to learn to skateboard this month, I wrote that it “will in no way help me in life.” I think I was wrong about that.

I mean, I don’t think it will directly help me get a job or anything since I’m not planning on becoming a professional skateboarder any time soon. But, it has helped me to become a little bit tougher.

Let me elaborate. On the first day of the month of practicing just riding my skateboard around in the parking lot behind my apartment, I fell down a hill and scraped my elbow. But, I had to get up and keep practicing.

About a week later, once I had built up some confidence, I decided to ride my skateboard to the gym. I looked like a complete idiot wobbling around and occasionally almost faceplanting off my board when I hit a crack in the sidewalk. But I had to keep going to get to the gym.

Skateboarding is one of those things that you have to fail at over and over and over again to get even slightly proficient at. I didn’t choose it because of that. I chose it because it’s also really fun. But I think having to fail, look dumb, fall down, get hurt, get back up again, and repeat will help me in life. A lot.