So I went out to skateboard today, and I got nostalgia-tripped so hard.
I just want to recollect some things about my life in text.
When I was little, I grew up playing games like most kids, watching cartoons, and whatever else could keep my attention, but I remember always watching skate videos from the ’90s since my older brother and cousin were heavily into skateboarding. I got my first skateboard while I was in second grade, and save for all the detail, it stuck with me. I loved the hobby.
Along came middle school and I found myself right in the middle of the skateboarding scene in this town. Everything was so surreal, and looking back at it, it was almost silly. Everyone had their crew, and each crew was identifiable with a name and a tag. To save the names, me and my crew had everything in the world we could ever want in the world; a skateboard and a curfew past dark.
I remember all the days getting in trouble with police, going out all day and not eating once or every checking in with home because we were all caught up in landing one trick. We always brought a camera, and if someone was able to get something done that no one had ever done, it was a huge deal. There was an 8-set of stairs in this school. I remember one day I was trying so hard to backside heelfip down it. There’s something strange about skateboarding, and it presents a scenario where you could be perfectly okay that you would be going home covered in bruises and dripped with blood, granted at some point during the day, you got your footage.
Anyways, on that day, I remember arriving at the stair set at around 3pm and just beating myself up throwing my body down the stairs trying to land this trick. It become an internal struggle of willpower to go on, and we always would go on. About two hours later, I remember rolling up to the stair set, furious with myself, riding fast, setting up my feet, and I popped the board up, got the board around, finished the backside 180, and landed bolts at the bottom of the stairs and rode away cleanly. The memories that surround my childhood aren’t the tricks, but the celebration afterwords. I remember my friends surrounding me for a round of high-fives and then we began to review the footage. It was all such a thrill.
But unfortunately, all of us grew up. A bunch of my friends got caught up in the wrong crowds, started doing drugs, et cetera. I even think a few friends had their life put on hold by having children. It was all over and everyone went and picked up new hobbies to suit their new age. But something in me wouldn’t let go of skateboarding.
I hadn’t rode for a few years, but I went out today and went to this little two-block stair set just for some fun, and my childhood was vividly brought back to me,
and had I not been alone today, I would have been the happiest I had been in a long time.