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Welcome to our kid-generated Smilestone blog! This blog is the brainchild of seven-year-old L, who wanted to create a place where children could share their Smilestones. A Smilestone, according to L, is when “something really important happens in your life and it makes you feel so good, you can’t stop smiling about it.” So in a time when we read about so much “bad,” this is a blog for children to celebrate and share the “good.” As L says, “I wanted to write this blog because I hope that after reading my story, maybe you’ll decide to make a difference, too. Wouldn’t it be cool if even one person who read this blog told someone else, who told someone else, and one of those people (or maybe more) decided to make a difference, too? Maybe the difference-maker will be… YOU!!!”
Bike Adventures With My Dad by SS
I have done a few bike trips around the world. The first one was only my dad and me when I was 8 years old. We rode connected bicycles across Japan in 67 days. The whole ride was 2,500 miles long.
I think it’s great that people do adventures all over the world. It’s a fun experience. A lot of people think that they are too weak, too slow, etc. I think no matter how bad or good you do, as long as you don’t give up, it’s worth it. Way too many people aren’t confident and are not able to build their courage and actually try. When my dad and I decided to ride bikes across Japan, a lot of people thought we were crazy, but that didn’t stop us. We were going to do it anyway. On the trip, we took on sumo wrestlers, rode over 10 mountains, saw wild monkeys, slept in a tent on the beach or in the forest, and met lots of really nice people.
Once we finished the trip, we didn’t know what we would do next. We thought and thought, and then we found a place called Iceland (NW of England). This time my 4-year-old sister joined us on a bike trailer connected to my trailer cycle. We rode 1,500 miles all over Iceland, and it took us 46 days. It was rocky and hilly terrain, and there was a volcano that was supposed to erupt a long time ago, so people don’t know when it will. The volcano melted some ice and flooded a road we were on days before, and it was pretty scary to know that there was a volcano that could erupt any second.
The next year, when I was 11, we rode our bikes through Europe for 42 days. This one wasn’t as hard as the other two, but we did go through Switzerland, and that was pretty hilly. We went through Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. While we were there we saw some of the Tour de France and got to see some of the Olympics. It was pretty fun.
My dad, sister and I are planning to have a trip this summer where we ride our bikes the same route that Lewis and Clark took when they were traveling through America looking for a good river to take them all the way to the Pacific Ocean. My mom will ride some too, but can’t do the whole trip because of her job at the United Nations.
Biking for day after day gets hard because you get exhausted from riding that long without stopping, so my dad and I make rest stops where there are interesting things. Like any kid I love videogames and stuff like that.
I think if you are afraid of anything, you should stand up and try it. If you fail or stop, try again. You will get it after awhile, ONLY if you keep trying. I hope this encourages people to do some adventurous trips too!
by SS
SS, age 12, is a sixth grader at the United Nations International School in New York City. He is captain of his school’s soccer team and performs in the junior ensemble at the American Tap Dance Foundation. When he was eight years old, he and his father cycled the length of Japan, covering 2,500 miles in 67 days and raised money for an international tree-planting campaign. The United Nations named the pair “Climate Heroes.” At age ten, he cycled the circumference of Iceland in 46 days with his father and four-year-old sister. And at age eleven, the family cycled for 42 days through Germany, Switzerland, France and England. In the summer of 2013, he will cycle with his family for two months along the Lewis & Clark Trail in the western United States, a trip that will be featured by National Geographic.
Check out some previous Smilestones
My Daughter’s Smilestone: Locks of Love
A Smilestone Can Happen At Any Time
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The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.
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