Fall 2005
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Freedom
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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