Taking a little break from Twitter I realized most folks who follow me for bikes™️ on here only know me as the anti-enforcement girl who thinks an equitable project is more important than a super quick project (good things to know me as IMO!)

So! Here’s a little more about me:
I bought my first adult bike at 20 thinking I would ride it home. Joke was on me! Turns out being an adult does not magically mean you know how to ride a bike & I did not!

I walked it several miles home & spent the next week secretly teaching myself to ride in alleys.
I got the bike to be able to keep up with my friends but ended up falling in love & going on solo rides whenever I had time between school work.

Also fun fact: I went to my first ARTCRANK event before getting the bike & did not know(!) I couldn’t ride a bike when I attended 😅
My first job out of college was at Nice Ride doing outreach, helping get the first year of the Neighborhood (orange bike) program going, & eventually working on their five year assessment & strategic plan.

Through this job I got my League Cycling Instructor certification.
Then I applied for a job at what was then the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition & didn’t get it. I applied for jobs there multiple times before eventually landing what I consider to be my dream role in 2017.
In the meantime I worked at orgs focused on reproductive justice, mental health, housing, & wrote a couple pieces for People for Bikes.

I’m glad I got to do all of this because it really informs where I am now.
I also got into bike racing & raced track, road, & cyclocross at a *very* amateur level. Here I met amazing friends & learned a lot about myself.

& I got to help out on the Powderhorn 24 organizing committee for two years.

📷 Matthew Pastick
During the eight years I’ve known how to ride a bike I’ve been hit by people driving three times. All my crashes were luckily minor, though one was pretty scary.

Luckily my worst bike injuries have been all me crashing myself out in totally safe environments 🙃
& somewhere in there I hosted an alley cat race all by myself (stubborn!) called Sexy Cat that was themed around consent & safe sex.

At one of the stops people had to ID different types of lube by touching them.

📷 Morgan Lust
& then I got into mountain biking for a bit.
As far as transportation goes, I’ve never owned a car. As a kid I walked everywhere which was a very weird thing to do in my hometown. Cars felt dangerous to me & I did not like the responsibility that came from driving one, though I do have my license.
After learning to bike I primarily commuted by bike.

My first big winter commute was an accident. It snowed unexpectedly during the day & I just decided to go for it.

I recently changed preferences form drop bars & light weight to a heavy, flat bar commuter with a rack.
So! That’s more about me ☺️

In this brief little time away from Twitter I realized part of what gets to me On Here is when folks make assumptions about me that aren’t true & as a result day something that’s kinda mean.
The more obvious solution to not being hurt by this stuff is to get a thicker skin & develop more self-confidence & internal validation.

Which I am working on!

But that stuff’s pretty hard so I made this thread too 💁🏼‍♀️
You can follow @eeewade.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: