When The Training Wheels Come Off Poem by Jim Yerman

Remember when you first learned to ride a bike...when everything was new?
Have you ever stopped to think about the evolution you went through?

Close your eyes and you are back there...remember how it feels?
You started on a tricycle...then a two-wheeler with training wheels

Then came the day that changed the world, we all must face it as we grow
The day when we all realized...the training wheels must go.

Remember Dad or Mom running behind you; hearing their encouragement, their groans.
Remember seeing them in the distance...you were riding on your own!

At that moment you were alive and you thought...this bike riding is a piece of cake.
Till you remembered they taught you how to ride but no one taught you how to brake.

It turns out life is a series of evolutions we experience along the way
For, like it or not, everything is changing, every second, every day.

Of course we know this...but once in a while we become a little more attuned
Like when Sunday merges into Monday or May turns into June.

And we begin to think as we take time out from our normal circadian climb
About the changes we have experienced through the passages of time.

A baby changes daily and in no time at all is learning how to crawl
As quickly as the summer breeze shifts to the winds of fall.

We blink and that toddler is a child, then a teenager on the go
As quickly as the falling leaves of autumn turn into winter snow.

The teenager becomes an adult with all the responsibilities that brings.
As quickly as the winter cold gives way to the flowers of spring.

Change surrounds us, it's inevitable...and though we may not understand why
Without it...no caterpillar in the world become a butterfly?

Since life will not slow down for us no matter how we've tried
I think learning to ride a bike helps prepares us for the ride.

"Oh that's ridiculous! How can riding a bike prepare us for life? " You scoff.
It's simple really, it gets us ready for the day...when the training wheels come off.

After all we need to keep pedaling to stay balanced, we learn from our mistakes
We feel the joy of independence and, eventually, we even hit the breaks.