Last weekend I was hanging out with a group of friends, when one of them pulled a skateboard out of the trunk of his car. One of the guys, Ezra, started skating the parking lot, while everyone else started telling war stories from years of skating ramps, pools, and parks. But I didn’t have any stories, I never learned how to skate.

If I had to put something on my bucket list, I guess skating boarding would be as good as anything. I’ve always wanted to, and I’d love to be able to skate a pool, ollie a a set of stairs, or grind a rail. I started to think about it, and I thought, “Why don’t we learn together?”

Eventually you’ll want to learn to ride a skateboard, most little boys do. And since I’ve always wanted to learn, why couldn’t we learn together? But then I began to have doubts. Cement is really hard, after all… and I’m not getting any younger.

As soon as the doubts rolled into my head, as if on cue, I heard someone crash. I turned to see Ezra laying on the ground, back arched in the air, holding his hip in pain as the skateboard coasted across the parking lot. By the time he finally recovered enough to stand up, another one of our friends came sailing in on the board. He also fell, this time sending the board straight into Ezra’s shin.

So am I too old to skate? No, my friends proved they can still do it, even though it can be pretty painful at times.  Am I too old to learn with you? I don’t know, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how convincing you are!

Love,

Dad

5-5-12