The time my best friend made me skate 17 miles & it was the best day of the summer

Although it felt like the world was imploding, somehow we had found our own little sanctuary on a small lake in northern Indiana. The house was originally my grandfather's aunt & uncle's house, whom he lived with during his childhood. They willed the house to him, in which he willed it to my mother. The lake is only about 15 minutes away from where both myself & my best current & childhood friend, Sarah, grew up, but despite this, I had never been inside the house my whole life. It was quite battered down and didn't even have modern plumbing (literally outhouse vibes LOL), but in 2014 my mom decided to fix it up and make it the cutest, quaintest, most serene place one could ask for, and by 2020, Sarah & I found ourselves living there (thank you, Mom & Dad!!)

Sarah had taken to rollerskating during the spring months of quarantine and continued the passion during the summer on a trail named the Pumpkinvine just a quarter mile up the road. She asked me to join her one day borrowing an old pair of her skates, and I couldn't believe how much fun it was & how good it felt! I skated on short rides & switched to biking for long rides the rest of the summer, but we enjoyed many rides together in the evenings and on weekend mornings, we’d sing, pick wildflowers to put in a homemade bouquet, and share endless laughs and joys during hard times.

When Sarah came to me one day saying she had an idea on how to use rollerskating not just as a fun, leisurely activity, but also as a means of fighting against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, a cause she has felt passionate about for years… I was in awe. Seeing & hearing her excitement and passion around the idea was and has been truly inspiring. A couple of days later she came to me with the idea of "Move for the Movement" raising funds for the Polaris Project ("a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent modern-day slavery and human trafficking") by skating the entire 17-mile length of the Pumpkinvine trail we had grown so fond of throughout the summer. I said listen… 1) This is amazing, don't stop, and 2) I'm no skater, but I'll still join you in this fight, just on my bike!

The anticipation leading up to the “Movement'“ was super exciting because, for the first time in nearly all quarantine, it felt like we had something to look forward to. We had two of our friends quarantining with us, so they decided to join us for the 17-mile journey as well; one on a bike, one long boarding (biking, skating, long-boarding: a very diverse group of transporters, indeed!). The morning of the "Movement" we were blessed with a clear sky, full of sun, & I knew we'd have an amazing day. We all got dressed, packed waters, snacks, everything we needed for the ride (including our playlist made up of Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, and Dua Lipa, nonetheless), and we were off!

The first part of our ride was through the beautiful Amish country. We were sheltered from above by a beautiful canopy of green leaves, the air still fresh and cool in the morning. We passed beautiful wildflowers & animals, including the infamous "water cows!" (Water cows: a type of cow we named because they are often wading in the water, as if they think they are hippos and not in fact cows)

Our first stop was at the Dairy Queen in town where Sarah's mom so graciously soccer-mom greeted us with an open trunk of cold water bottles, Uncrustables, and camping chairs set out. Right before we got to DQ, I saw two boys who looked approximately high school age running behind presumably their fathers on bikes… meaning these child boys are running as fast as their dads are biking… never have I ever related more with dads.

After our refreshing & rejuvenating in-town stop, we finished riding through the back of town, passing by the grocery store we frequented as kids and houses of friends who don't live there anymore. We got to ride through the beautiful Krider Gardens which is practically a secret garden right in the middle of our town.

Eventually, we left the canopy of green trees and started riding through open fields of corn, soybeans, and naturally… more cows… this is Indiana after all!

We finally hit the ten-mile marker, and to celebrate we struck a pose!

At this point in the day, the sun is high in the sky, mercilessly beating down on us and we are all starting to feel the fatigue. No longer protected by the morning cold or shade from the trees, we trudged on in the Indiana sun. 

At around the 15-mile marker, we're all in our respective zones, when suddenly we get a rude awakening and see a huuuuuuuuuge hill in our future. It's like in the action movies where there's a battle scene but suddenly it goes into slow motion, and you watch one of the characters slowly see the sword coming towards them realizing their fate… That was us realizing we couldn't go under the hill… couldn't go around it… had to go over it! 

I stood up on my bike and pedaled as hard as I possibly could all the way to the top, practically collapsing off my bike once there but at least I got to wait for the others. Slowly, they all made it up one by one. This was the only time for one moment it crossed my mind that we might not be able to finish. We stopped and rested for a second, all took a deep breath, and then all looked around at each other knowing we'd almost finished this, and that we weren't stopping then, not when we were riding for far more than ourselves. 

The last two miles felt like the entire prior 15 combined, but we trudged on through blood, sweat, and tears (just kidding only sweat, maybe a few tears :'). Finally, after 17 miles and 4 hours, we rode across the finish line triumphantly blaring Taylor Swift's summer pop jam, "Cruel Summer". We did it!! 

Sarah raised $3,169 dollars for Polaris Project. It was hard and there were times I doubted if I could do it since I'm not a skater, but I can confidently say it was my most proud accomplishment & rewarding experience of my summer. I really felt like I was helping someone when sometimes I can feel helpless in the world's current environment. That day is one of my favorite memories of our friendship; all of us coming together to accomplish one goal for something much greater than all of us. Sarah collapsed in what I presume was a similar deep feeling of accomplishment, happiness & relief. 

When we got to the end of our trek, I couldn't help but think about the beginning. Something I omitted previously is the existence of a colossal incline (dang near just a straight drop off) on the road leading from my house up to the Pumpkinvine trail…

And let me tell YOU it is a KICKER… it puts the 15-miles-in-hill on the trail to shame, and again, this is before you even get on the trail!! The first thing we had to do in this 17-mile ride is to go up a huge hill??! This whole summer I have dreaded every time I have to do that hill, and every time I look at it, I feel like it's going to be so hard, it seems impossible. As daunting/exhausting/annoying as the hill was and still is on our rides, I've started to think of it differently. No longer do I start my ride out with dread for the hill, but rather like an engine, I rev the heck UP. Knowing that all I have to do is get over the hill then I'm smooth sailing, was enough to give me the push to fight through it. 

In many ways, I feel like the initial hill before the trail is similar to Sarah's Rollerskate to Liberate journey. I know it was both easy and hard for Sarah to decide to embark on her RS2L journey; easy because of the passion and calling she felt compelled towards, but hard because she knew it would be a huge challenge, but she didn't let the hill of starting a nonprofit scare her, rather fuel her for the hill of starting a nonprofit, and then she really got rolling. :) 

Good luck and Get Moving!!!