Week 1: Going to Work/School is #BetterByBicycle
When I ditched the city life more than a decade ago, I knew that I'm gonna be like one of those characters from the various slice of life anime series or Jap films I watch. My main motivation to cycle had always been to cut down on my carbon footprint, but there's also a part of me secretly wishing to live like some high school student in Japan. I knew my time to live that life had passed, luckily I work in a school, so going to work with my bicycle oftentimes makes me feel like I'm a joshi kosei, to some a kokosei 😅. I even got myself a randoseru and I secretly celebrated every time my colleagues or students comment that I'm like a Japanese student (sometimes they'd say Korean and I would instantly correct them 😆) when I enter the campus gate on my bicycle donning a randoseru.
Cosplaying aside, I wish more Filipino students and workers would choose to commute by bicycles over motorbikes or cars. During my commutes to work, I'd usually pass by some students waiting for a tricycle and I couldn't help but think about the wasted time standing, waiting. The fact that I passed by them meant they live closer to school than I do. There was one time that I passed by one of my students in front of what I assumed was her home, and we were less than 1 km away from the campus. I stopped and told her, hey why don't you just start walking to school, and she just smiled shyly and told me she'd sweat. I told her she's missing out on dopamine, serotonin and endorphins (the neurotransmitters I discussed in class)! But what's wrong with sweating? It's good if it came from physical activity. I just shrugged but all I could think was, what the heck, we're all gonna sweat in the classroom anyway, why worry about it now? I don't want to get too preachy but I mean there's just too much benefit that people deliberately pass out -financially, physically, mentally, and of course environmentally, in exchange of convenience. Another time, on my way home from work, a former student on motorbike went beside me to tell me to ride safe, then sped up. I felt his exhaust pipe spew the toxic fumes right on to my face and all I could do was hold my breath. It wasn't intentional of course, and I don't hate him for that, but it would have been better if most road users wouldn't have to contribute to the deterioration of air quality.
I live 5 km away from the school I work and I always take the inner town highway route, but sometimes when I've got more time to lose, I explore other routes as well. The thing about our daily commutes is that we just take it as a time and process to get to our destination. The faster and shorter, the better. But sometimes, it's good for our mind and spirit to slow down. We live in a fast-paced world and sometimes we get caught up in the whirlwind of events in our lives that we forget to stop for a little bit and just appreciate what we have at the moment. I used to be a big pessimist about the world, but through various learning and encounters, I realized just how much time I'm wasting complaining for what I can't have or I can't be. Nowadays, no matter how messed up the world or my life is, my daily bike ride helped me appreciate the fact that it's still good to be living in this complex and beautiful world. I see sceneries that make me smile and the good thing about cycling is I can easily stop to take a snapshot.
♥️
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