I still love to ride my bike, especially when its the time of the year when the Ride for Roswell comes around. The Ride, a fundraiser for Roswell Park Cancer Institute, is a weekend-long event in which particpants ride a distance (anywhere from 3 to 104 miles) with thousands of other riders, all united under the common goal to find a cure for cancer. Last year after hearing ecstatic extra-mile club members (riders who raise $1000+) speak about the Peloton (the ride that goes from Roswell to the opening ceremony) I knew this year I had to sign up. They described the patients watching from their windows as they departed, and I can't wait to see a similar sight and be inspired not only for the 12 mile ride ahead of me but in all my fundraising efforts. The next day I will ride an additional 20 miles before walking across a stage to recieve my high school diploma (okay, I never said I didn't make the most of each minute). If you're interested in supporting me in the ride, you can go to
http://rideforroswell2013.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1054496&lis=1&kntae1054496=82920B18245249709696393CFF76A93D&supId=360930181.
Biking (and driving with the windows down) while bald is seriously fantastic: talk about feeling the wind in your hair. I don't go anywhere without the window down anymore. And one other phenomenom for everyone who has never experienced a buzz cut: after your hair gets wet, if you vigorously rub your hands through it, water flies everywhere! This is probably one of those things you have to experience to appreciate (so go shave your head, now). But I seriously promise you it looks and feels cool, even if it's somewhat dog-like in nature. I still don't mind how I look. In fact I'm a lot more self-confident now than I ever was in the past (despite the occasional..."you looked better with hair" comments some people give me. What catches me off guard though is the people who are seriously afraid of me because of my hair. Not being a cancer patient, it doesn't hurt me too much. But seriously, if you are one of these people that sees a girl with little or no hair and think that its your cue to run away, it's not. Cancer is not contagious (okay, I'll admit I thought it was as a child, so if you did too I won't judge) and she's probably a fantastic person if you get to know her.
Of course, this is one end of the spectrum, and there are many people who aren't as extreme. There are, too, people that are seriously pleasant-er, like the man I mentioned in my first post who thanked me twice for holding a door open for him. Today, a post man who was closing a door behind him reopened it and held it open for me...despite that I was about 30 steps from the door. If you want to have doors held open for you, I'm telling you: get rid of your hair. It makes me feel bad, that they are treating me so nicely and I'm not sick. But other than by wearing a shirt that says "I don't have cancer" I'm not really sure how I'd get the point across, and that seems a bit extreme if you ask me.
As for whether or not I'll keep my hair short, I'm growing it back out. Even though I really like it how it is, the reason I wanted to go bald was to see what it was like for a cancer patient who lost their hair. And they also have to experience it growing back. So despite the awkward stages that might fall in between, I'm growing it back out so I can worry about what it will look like and experience everything else cancer patients go through with regards to hair that cancer patients often do. For now though, I'll enjoy 3 minute showers and waking up 10 minutes before I need to leave, the hardest part of my morning being the decision of which bow or flower to wear in my hair. But in the future, I wouldn't be suprised if my hair returns to this length.