California Quails & Hatching into a new identity

The other day I was walking to a friend’s place to bake. A car was pulling out of a plaza and suddenly I was stopped side by side with a fellow pedestrian waiting for the car to exit. 

I glanced over and the stranger was carrying a bag that had a drawing of California Quail. 

I LOVE CALIFORNIA QUAILS. I started to chit chat with the stranger and bond with potential birder and California quail lover.

And I asked if they were a birder and they replied something along the lines of, “no because I don’t know a lot about birds, but I do enjoy looking at them.” 

I had to refrain as they headed down the Metro stairwell from yelling, you know, if you enjoy looking at birds, you can claim the identity of being a birder.

Now you might be asking, why are you suddenly talking about birding. Isn’t this a newsletter about biking and shifting gears in life? Yes. Yes. Yes. Stick with me just for a second. 

A few years ago, I worked for the National Audubon Society in NYC. When I was hired, I could tell you what a blue jay was, a cardinal and a pigeon. I 10000% wouldn’t have called myself a birder, but the role was fit for me like a glove. I had a teaching degree and the role was about exciting elementary kids about the outdoors. I literally led kids on bird walks in their neighborhood and got them stoked about the call of a Barred Owl (which legit sounds like its singing ‘who cooks for you’… but I digress).  

Through training and learning our curriculum, I slowly and surely could identify the common species of birds in New York City. But claiming the identity as a ‘birder’.  That’s something that took me some more time, even though I literally was the model birder for hundreds of kids and worked for one of the most notable birding organizations in the country. 

As I got more excited about birding and immersed in the job, I cut myself some slack and started calling myself a birder. I didn’t need to check any of those boxes to be a card carrying birder. I was excited about birds. I took time in my life to oh and ah at them, even if some days I had no clue what I was looking at.  I became a birder! 

Which brings me to biking? Do you have resistance in claiming that you are a biker, even if you enjoy biking? 

Earlier this week, I was having a conversation with a retreat center leader about the upcoming Circle and Spoke event on April 14th – Ride & Reignite. She said, “you know I wouldn’t identify myself as a biker, but I do know how to ride a bike.”

Which made me think of the California Quail bag owner and my own former resistance to claiming the identity of birder. 

Honestly until a year ago, I wouldn’t have called myself a biker. I would have said, ”I occasionally ride my bike and like to do that.”

Reasons why I was too intimidated to claim the identity as a biker:

• I didn’t know enough about bikes

• I couldn’t tell you the difference between a gravel bike and a hybrid bike

• I didn’t own my own deluxe bicycle. I used a hand-me-down from my mom. 

• I hadn’t done enough biking 

• I connected with biking from a place of wonder and it was less of an exercise, competitive sport and rather more of ‘oh wow that feels fun to go ride down that hill’

• The people who identified as bikers are primarily white, older males and that’s not who I am. 

• There are people who identify as bikers are legit cyclists. They have a mechanic level’s knowledge of biking and gear and know a lot about biking. I am not one of them. 

And then last year, I had this epiphany: I was going to bike from DC to Pittsburgh. That’s a longer story for a different day, but what I’ll say is that in choosing to say yes to this bike ride, I realized that I was a biker. Bikers go biking and I was going biking.

I was going to learn and train and become a better biker. I didn’t need to own any fancy gadgets or do the ride from a competitive place. I was going to claim being a biker and go bike those 330+ miles. 

Perhaps there’s an identity that you are hoping to claim? Perhaps you aren’t going to wake up and suddenly be a biker or a birder or whatever it is, but what’s that identity that you’d love to claim?

I’d love to know what that identity is and how I can be of support to cheerlead you on and affirm that you can say yes to that! Email me at [email protected] .

Wheels up, 

Ellen