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I’ve never been a very ‘active’ person, but after watching the Olympics last year, I was completely inspired, by cycling…the speed, the thrill, and ultimately the training and commitment that goes into it, to become ‘professional’. I can’t explain how I felt, the feeling was so strong, I’ve never even had an interest in cycling…but after watching one race in particular I just had an immense gut feeling, like I had found ‘my thing’, my passion, and I went from being completely unfit and unable to ride a mile without getting out of breath, to this year, competing in road and track events, becoming national grass track champion in my age category, and beating my PB’s by massive chunks of time…not only that, it changed my life for the better, I’m a much happier, positive and more confident person, and I love cycling, I love the pain of training, the feeling of accomplishment, and just being out on my bike.
The overall dream has remained the same from the moment I had that ‘gut feeling’, I want to become a professional cyclist. Its extremely ambitious, I know, it takes years of commitment, hard training, sacrifices…and only ‘the exception’ make it. But I know, in my heart, I can be ‘the exception’, I’ve set my mind to it.
One thing I’ve discovered is that within this dream, I’m going to fail many times…I already have, I’ve gone from struggle to struggle, in the beginning, trying to keep up with others my age, who are much faster, being left behind, having to ride alone because I couldn’t keep up….being beaten badly in races, most recently losing badly in the British Track Championships, I was lapped, in 2 races, but I got back up, and raced the next day, and the day after, I came last in the other 2, but I know failing is a part of succeeding, every time I’ve failed I’ve got back up, and I will continue to do so!
There’s one last thing however, that I need help with…my parents. They have no interest in cycling, and they’re not the type of people who ‘believe in dreams’, they’re pessimistic, and somewhat un-supportive at times. When I first started cycling and told my Dad ‘my dream’, he told me to ‘get my head out of the clouds, stop being so stupid and get a grip. That I needed to understand that could never happen to me, thats not how life works, so to focus on what I’m good at.’ It really hurt, but I was determined to prove him wrong…and 12 months down the line I feel I really have proved myself! My Mum however, still has this attitude, I know that she would prefer me to get a job, earn money, and be ‘normal’, and at the moment she really seems to be desperately trying to get me to ‘be normal’, after seeing me fail at the British Track Champs, she wanted me to give up, because I was clearly not good enough, she’s stopping me going to certain training sessions because I’ve ‘misbehaved’ but really, its just because she has something against me cycling, she pays no attention to any of my achievements, or asks how I’m doing…I just feel ‘unsupported’. My Dad has come round a little, but he pays little attention really, and my brother just follows them, and laughs at my ideas and failures.
I realise this is a long post, I’m sorry, but I really do need help with this…I’m being held back in essence, my family are trying to pull me down, stop me from achieving my dream, and I don’t know what to do about it, because they’re the people I love the most, but my dream means so much to me too, its what I want to do in life, and I don’t want to end up in a job I hate, stuck, and forever wondering ‘what if?’ because I went along with my parents….Part of me is also starting to get sucked into their opinions, and I’m starting to believe I’m really not ‘destined’ to ‘be exceptional’…
I really need help with this and I wondered if anyone had any advice?
Thank you, in advance, it means a lot.
Don’t let your parents derail your dream – it is your dream. Here is a true story.
My wife watched the 1984 Olympics with her father and decided that she wanted to go to the Olympics when she was older; she was 14 at the time. They looked at all the sports that were in the Olympics and decided on flatwater kayaking because it was not that well known in the US and she could train on her own, without a team. She ultimately won multiple national championships, represented the US at the 1987 Jr. World Championships in Yugoslavia, and was invited to train at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, CA with the intent of training and qualifying for the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. However, this all occurred at the time she was graduating HS and supposed to be going to college. While her father helped set her on her path, her parents ultimately “dropped the hammer” and said she had to go to college and not go west to the Olympic training center and they would not assist in funding any of her training at the Olympic center. She listened to them….to this day it is, by far, her biggest regret in life, she can’t even tell the story without crying because she knows deep down she could have marched in the opening ceremonies representing the US, but gave up on HER dream. She could have still gone to college after the games and everyone would have been happy.
Pursue your dream, it is YOUR dream – but have a fall back plan – there are plenty of folks who realize there athletic dreams and then do big things afterwards – for example, Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals, rode in the Tour de France and then became an orthopedic surgeon and if you fall short in your dream you can still do big things in other arenas.
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 