Gun's Quote:
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
-Maya Angelou
There is no way I can write this week's Gun's Quote the way that I envisioned it. The last two weeks don't permit it.
I never, ever intend for one of these posts to be a lecture. I am thoroughly convinced that the best way to inspire or to teach somebody is to tell your story. Nobody wants a lecture. Everybody wants to hear a good story.
Tonight is different. Tonight, I feel compelled and convicted to let the whole world know something that it needs to know. Something I've known, occasionally forgotten, and then had to be reminded of:
Absolutely everything you say and do matters.
Everything. Absolutely.
Never, ever forget that.
Frankly, I don't want to get into the details of how I have had to (re-)learn that lesson over the course of the last several weeks. It's embarrassing. I'm quite ashamed of it. Suffice it to say that I had to face situations where I hurt other people. I've had to say, "I'm sorry." I've had to acknowledge flawed judgement and/or making a bad call. I've had to look at decisions I've made, where I thought I was "in the right," only to find out later, through the lens of hindsight, that I was very, very wrong.
It's one thing to make a mistake. It's a whole other thing to have that mistake cause another person pain. I have caused people pain. Nothing about that is OK.
I suppose that's one of the reasons why I was attracted to the YouTube channel "DanDan the Fireman," as mentioned in previous weeks. He dissects how and why people make mistakes on motorcycles. The analysis was fascinating, and I was completely and totally nerding-out on the analytics of identifying a mistake and figuring out how to prevent it in the future.
It was through the binge-watching of his videos that I would learn about the MSF. (Motorcycle Safety Foundation.) "DanDan" is a MSF instructor. The Basic Rider Course that the MSF has developed is put on around various locations across the country. It's a two-and-a-half-day course that includes typical classroom instruction and then riding around in a parking lot so that a complete newb can learn how to ride a motorcycle. For $250, you show up to your local community college, take the class and learn how to ride a bike. In Kansas, the MSF counts as your "Drivers Test" for your motorcycle endorsement on your driver's license, so you get to "test out" of having to take that test when you show up to the DMV. Also in Kansas, there is a grant for taking the MSF. Sign a piece of paper after passing the class, mail it to Topeka, and in three weeks you get a check for $50.
All of this is before you buy a bike, gear, or any other financial commitment. You literally can drop just two Benjamins and jump on a bike for two days. Don't like it? Fine, you can be done. Do like it? Great! Now you can buy all the other stuff.
$200 is nothing to see if this was going to be something I wanted to do or not.
This was the "How" part of the question I addressed two weeks ago. How do I decide whether or not I'm pursuing this? How do I learn how to ride a motorcycle? How do I decide if this is going to happen? The MSF.
I looked it up online, found a class a few weeks away, dropped my money and was enrolled.
Then I told my mom. (Don't hide this stuff from your parents. Things won't end well for you.)
Then I went to Missouri Boys State to volunteer as a Staff Member, as I do every year. (Except last year because of COVID) Oddly, that presented a completely different perspective on this whole motorcycle thing, and one that simply can't be overlooked.
It was the beginning of the Summer at this point, and in June 2021, I would learn much about how I make people feel. (This time, in a good way.)
...and that's why it's a Gun's Quote!!
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