One down!

We all have childhood dreams.

Sometimes, they're realistic and plausible: "I want to know karate, and get that bully to leave me alone" and sometimes they're not so realistic: "I wanna be able to shoot magic fire from my fingers, and get that bully to leave me alone"

One of my dreams was to ride a motorcycle.

I never thought about it too much, I just thought I wanted to do it 'cause it was.. you know... cool and stuff.

For a while now, my thoughts have turned back to riding. But this time, i've been thinking about scooters. Now that gas prices are so high, having a scooter makes sense. I mean, some scooters get 96 miles per gallon! Instead of spending a couple hundred bucks a month on gas, I could spend $10 for the same amount of driving

The best thing to do to get ready for a scooter was to take a motorcycle class. (Motorscooters and motorcycles both need an M1 license in California). My former boss just bought a bigass bike, and wanted to take the class too, so we both signed up for the motorcycle safety program classes.

There are so many words to describe class, but the best one is: fun!

They're also challenging. But the challenge helps to build confidence. They teach you gradually what you need to know, but never coddle you. Got a problem? they've already shown you how to deal with emergency measures before proceeding.

The first night, Thursday, was a five and a half hour classroom course, going over theory and riding basics. The next two classes were on Saturday and Sunday, 5 hours each. These were taught on their motorcycles.

A couple times while we were doing the driving class, I would look at what we were supposed to do, and think "oh fuck no. No way am I gonna be able to do that". But when it was time for me to do the exercise, I did it with little or no problem, and in the process had a great time.

Every once in a while, I would stop and think about what I was doing, and just giggle to myself. "Im riding a motorcycle! This is so cool!"

At the end of the second class, they gave each of us an "evaluation" (aka: a test). They are licensed by the DMV, so taking the test on their course, with the bikes we've been practicing with– and learning on– for the past couple days, was a big help. If we pass the test there, then we don't have to take the test at the DMV; all we need do is pass the written test, and hand the DMV the certificate saying we've passed the MSP driving test to get our M1 license.

I passed the driving test, having only put my foot down once on the figure 8 U-turns, and stopping too early on my first attempt at the quick-stop test, but got a perfect score on the 135-degree turn and quick stop.

When I found out I had passed the test, I couldn't stop smiling. I was beaming the whole rest of the day. Not only had I been riding motorcycles for 2 days, but I passed the test!

Sunday night, as I was falling asleep, I kept going over the course in my head: push and counterbalance for a quick swerve to avoid an obstruction, stand and throttle-on to go over a bump or an obstacle in the road, push and lean for another turn... over and over again.

As I lay there remembering the test and all the riding; holding onto the feelings, the joy, the total rush of being on that bike, I kept thinking "Some dreams do come true. I'm a motorcycle rider now.

Hells yes!

I'm a MOTORCYCLE RIDER!"