My oddest passion

Okay, just to give you a heads-up: I am really into unicycling. It might sound like a really weird spare time activity, and you guys might wonder how that could possibly be entertaining at all but I started with this hobby because I am always up for a good competition. And learning how to unicycle was one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had to face. My dad was actually the one who came up with the idea of giving unicycling a try and asked me whether I would be ready to face such a challenge. We agreed to at least try it out and the first time we stood in front of a unicycle together I was really convinced that I could do it and I just sincerely hoped that my clumsiness wouldn’t be standing in my own way.  After we bought it, I was still really optimistic and didn’t worry about the possibility of either being unsuccessful or unable to learn it or of getting hurt, but when I first got to sit on the unicycle it felt like I was sitting on something that wasn’t made for being ridden. It practically scared the living daylights out of me and I refused to ever sit on it again unless I found my protectors from years ago. On wobbly legs I succeeded to mount the beast a second time but I was shaking so hard that I couldn’t even ride it for more than 10 centimeters without feeling the urge to hold on to something.
Now for all those reasons mentioned above, the following will most probably sound like a huge lie, but within 48 hours I succeeded in driving at least 25 meters without any help. That might sound relieving but I am very sorry to disappoint. Although it were only 48 hours that it took me to succeed, at least 90 % of the time were spent sitting on the unicycle driving  our drive way up and down for at least 300 times. Dedicating my time to it though wasn’t the biggest challenge because you won’t believe it: unicycling is pretty exhausting as well! When you ride a unicycle you don’t just need to make use of your legs and feet, you also need to be able to balance yourself with your arms and to brake or change directions with the help of your hips and lower abdomen. Furthermore the pedals of the unicycle are immobile and the bar the saddle is attached to on the other hand isn’t which means you can always fall forwards or backwards while sitting on the unicycle. So you don’t only need a lot of strength and coordination to do it, but also a great deal of balance.
Now you might ask yourself whether it is worth to dedicate so much of your time to a hobby that seems useless, but it really is. Not only your equilibrium but also your body posture really profit from this kind of “sport” and once you can really do it, you won’t believe how much fun it actually can be!