Freedom
![Ollie on half pipe](ollie%20on%206%20foot.jpg)
Age has made me a much less aggressive
skater throughout the years. However, the one thing that remains
prevalent in my perception of skateboarding is that the act of
skateboarding is, and will always be, an expression of youthful
freedom. After ten years of skating, I still do not foresee
myself ever sacrificing this freedom.
Sometimes I unfortunately still feel that skateboarding has
left me. When I arrive at parks and find myself considerably older than
everyone and also find myself scared to try some tricks, the inevitable question
arises, “Am I too old for this?” Also when I am working 40 hours a week on top
of 19 hours of school, skateboarding is hard to fit into a schedule, especially when it’s nearly impossible to gather all the friends together
to put together a session. Thus the inevitable question arises: “Do I have time
for this anymore?
I truly hope that the answer to these questions will always
remain an adamant "YES!” Although the sport has drastically changed along
with the image, nothing can divert the unique impact that skateboarding has on
an individual person. Skateboarding can soothe the mind of any worries or
troubles, as it truly takes full concentration of mind over matter to land
tricks. Skateboarding also allows carelessness, playfulness, and youthfulness
to reign supremely over all other faculties.
Too often, kids
play a sport such as baseball because their dad wants them to. As their father
screams from the stands at the little league game, the kid is many times
embarrassed and may question who is really playing the sport: “Am I just the
medium in which my dad expresses his lost dreams?” This is why kids take to
skateboarding. Skateboarding is about the individual and can’t be about anyone
else. No matter how hard popular culture tries to soften up skateboarding, this
truth can never be altered. Skateboarding is about oneself
and how one
can creatively express the exhilarating energy of freedom.
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