Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Just like riding a bike... | Halifax, NS, Breast Cancer Survivor

I stared at the screen.  The words and numbers stared back.  Everything looked so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time.  For four years I worked on this screen, my fingers nimbly hitting the keys, knowing which to hit without even needing to think about it.

F3.  F3.  Now what?  I stared some more.  One.  Nope, that's not it.  Two?  I don't know.  What was once second nature is now a foreign concept.  I'm stuck with nowhere to go.  I chuckled to my deskmates Lesley, Kathleen, and Linda.  "I don't have a clue," I laughed.

I've been away from my day job for six months or so while I was going through my cancer treatments.  I am oh so very lucky to have a job that will allow me the time needed to heal.  So very lucky.  Now, as I head back to work, I'm easing my way back in.  Slow and steady, I'm trying to pick up where I left off.  I thought it would be like riding a bike - you just know how to do it.  

Unfortunately, I don't know how to ride a bike.   Wait, yes I do - remember when you were a kid?  Bikes with banana seats?  Man, those were the best!  I think mine was pink, with tassels hanging from the big wide handles and I can remember riding it up and down Sunfield Rd, big as day, with my Barbie and Ken dolls in the weaved basket on the front.  I loved it.

But this wasn't any pink banana seat bike.  No sirree, this was a speed bike with gears and stuff and I was stuck.

The girls laughed with me.  They let me sweat it out a bit.  "Come on, give me a hint," I pleaded.  Finally, Lesley piped up.  Five and five.  Ah ha!  That's it!  My bike with gears vanished and here I was with my pink banana seat bike.  Just like that, I knew exactly what to do, my hands fluttered away at the keyboard and hit all the right spots, just like they did six months ago...


...Kare
email:  karenk{at}eastlink.ca

2 comments:

  1. you'll appreciate all that you know once you are up and running.... sorry riding... again! love, smh

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  2. "Like riding a bike" ....seems I just said that to you a couple of weeks ago and wasn't I right !! You go girl ;-)

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