Dear parents:
I wish you'd been a bit more encouraging when it comes to physical activity. You'd answer everything with "you'll get hurt." You were really reluctant to let me sign up for fencing in high school. And then when something did happen--because it's bound to if you're doing anything that often--you'd hold it over me and say "SEE? I told you!" I mentioned my goal of doing a metric century by early next summer, and you freaked out. (Of course I'm not going to let it interfere with my degree...)

And Mom, since I spent that whole summer riding, you won't stop going on about how much weight I lost doing it (the answer is "not much", I just replaced the belly fat with thigh muscle). That's not why I do it. I do it to keep the eczema in check, because it's the best stress relief I've ever found, and because I love it.