Kyle Wiebers | Blogger

As I am progressing through college, I find some things incredibly challenging, and some things relatively simple, as I am sure all of us do with anything in life. But as I thought back on easy and difficult things in my life, the training wheels on my bicycle and the bumpers at the bowling alley immediately came to mind. Those two things helped make life a lot easier for me as a child (OK let’s be honest, I still use the bumpers as a 20 year old) and helped me to progress into who I am today.

But the training wheels really got me thinking, and I realized I still have training wheels in my life today. While they may not be on my bike anymore, I definitely have training wheels here at college. I have academic training wheels thanks to my professors and advisors, I have extracurricular activity training wheels thanks to the upperclassmen, and I have emotional training wheels thanks to my wonderful friends. We all have these training wheels, but it’s up to us whether or not we use them. Obviously, sometimes these training wheels aren’t going to support us all the time like the bumpers at the bowling alley, but our college training wheels will do their very best to keep us wobbling along this journey as we get our degrees.

When I was a child and had my parents take off my training wheels from my bike, and I fell time and time again trying to ride without them, I understood how much I utilized those training wheels and how hard riding a bike was without them.

So, take time to really think about the training wheels in your life, and be thankful for them, because life would be a whole lot harder with those training wheels in place, so as you ride along in life, smile because you know your training wheels have you.