Spinning All the Plates, All the Time…
Ok. Real talk. And this one isn’t an exclusive bike related post. It’s more of a “this is how life is, and how do you balance it” kind of post, but that balancing includes bikes among other things, so there’s that.
Before I jump in to the deep end, a little context is in order for the sake of clarity. I opened Velo Garage and Tap House in 2017 and from the very beginning it was beset with surprise after surprise. Some of the surprises come with the territory of entrepreneurship and are expected, others not so much. Doing a DIY build out of a space is a fun and stressful event. There’s so much adrenaline flowing as long hours and late nights bring the plans made on paper to reality. You expect hiccups in any business process, you plan for them, and then you pivot and keep on keepin’ on. Hiccups are one thing and game changing life events are something else. After years of trying unsuccessfully to have a family, my wife and I found out two months before Velo Garage was to open that we were pregnant! I was nervous, excited, scared, and nauseous all at the same time for the entirety of 2017. I was going to be a Dad….a #girldad.
The first few years of business are always tenuous and stressful. I knew days were going to be long and there would still be challenges that we would not have expected, much less planned for. With the arrival of our baby girl expected during the first year of business, the stress was off the charts. My amazing wife spent most of her pregnancy with her sister (who luckily moved t0 KC and stayed with us for bit) or solo while I worked at the shop and navigated all the curve balls that were coming our way. For all intents and purposes, we had two children to attend to—a new business and a new baby girl. To say that we definitely did not plan on having so many big life changes when we started a business would be the understatement of the year. Go big or go home, right? For a couple as pragmatic as my wife and I, this was quite a nerve racking undertaking. It seemed Velo Garage was born under a chaotic sign, a full moon, or some other bad omen. If we did our job right, our customers wouldn’t be privy to the behind the scenes challenges. And luckily, I think we did right by them. But the challenges and stress are all very real when opening and running a business. They get amplified with the unexpected arrival of a little bundle of joy. But that’s life. It’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans as John Lennon put it. So in our first years of Velo Garage, I spun all the plates I could: dad plate, owner plate, husband plate, etc.. The hard part is keeping them spinning.
Fast forward almost five years and Velo Garage is still here, I’m still married to the same amazing woman (16 years this week) and have the most kind, funny, spirited, determined, and smart girl I’ve ever met as a daughter. I’m still spinning plates, but not as many. Not because their aren’t as many (there are), but there are just some that I’m gonna let drop and some that I won’t ever let drop. For me, for now, riding my bike as much as I used too is a plate that I’ve let drop. It’s been hard to accept that and it was hard to decide that. But if I’ve learned anything in the past five years of navigating everything from a surprise pregnancy to a new business through new business partners through pandemics and all the things in between, it’s that time is a blessing, life is a gift, and life moves on quickly. I still get joy and stress relief and endorphins every time I get on a bike and I look forward to when I can ride more miles than I do now, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying bedtime story sessions, teaching my daughter to ride her bike, collecting cicada shells with her, and cooking dinner for her and my wife. It makes the time on the bike the icing on the cake instead of the plate I felt I had to spin because I was afraid to let it fall. Maybe it’s still spinning…just a lot slower. I’m okay with that.