You have a choice between two offices for the summer. On your left is a lovely corner model, fully furnished and climate controlled. Its expansive 16×24 window offers breathtaking views of industrial carapace, with HVAC vents shimmering in the summer heat.
On your right is a “rolling office“. It can be packed in a box, shipped anywhere, then set up in minutes. While this model comes with a higher likelihood of chafing, its views are unparalleled, and every moment is a Rubiks cube of unknowns and surprises, from within and without.
Which would you choose? Desk shackles or bike chains. Here are a dozen reasons to consider leading bike trips as a summer job.
Community
Our culture and time is starved for community. Each bike trip builds instant community, where every link in the chain matters. Depending on the conditions, you become a pod of dolphins, a flamboyance of flamingos, a barrel of monkeys, a murmuration of starlings… You move together, eat together, work together, and overcome together. You cross the finish line together, and share a bond together, for the rest of your life.
Decision Making, Problem Solving
Leading bike trips will put you in situations where decisions need to be made quickly, and problems need to be solved with what’s on hand. You’ll have that opportunity every day, and you’ll get better at it. Those skills won’t leave you.
Freedom
Freedom to be yourself. To grow. To explore who you are and who you want to be. To think, plan, and dream. To break custom and old patterns. Freedom to breathe fresh air and feel rain and sun on your skin.
Mentorship
You will have the chance to become a role model and mentor for others at a critical point in their lives while leading bike trips. You may inspire your trekkers to pursue a passion, overcome negative emotions, or look at the world with new eyes. As you pass from town to town, you might do the same for your cashier, or someone you meet on the side of the road, showing them that risks are worth taking, and challenges are worth overcoming.
Unplug
It’s not a life hack to spend time away from your phone and in nature. It is what our minds and bodies are conditioned to, and crave. These trips eschew the phones in favor of paper maps and engagement with fellow country folk. Memes are better when they come from real bumpkins and fogeys with electrical outlet shocked hair. Your relationship to screens and social media will improve. You’ll finish a book.
Laughter
Laughter on a bike trip is like beans. A healthy, essential nutrient which comes in many flavors. Some of the tastiest varieties you’ll encounter include laughter via absurdity, exhilaration, and slapstick. Often they’re all rolled into one big patty. Trip memories will pop in to your head daily, eliciting chortles and chuckles.
Strength
First your body will strengthen. Then your mind. You will be challenged, but you won’t be alone, and you will come out the other side more capable. You and every member of your team will gain flexibility of mind, something you can return at any point with future biking and apply to any aspect of life.
Life Experience
The most common regrets of centenarians are a lack of quality time spent with friends and family, and a lack of experience — places traveled, senses engaged, boundaries pushed. Leading bike trips brings friends which feel like family, and turns you into a walking colander, straining all sorts of experience through your noodle holes to be digested for years to come.
Kindness of Strangers
During a bike trip, at some point, a stranger is going to blow your mind. With kindness. They might offer you a ride when you’ve got a flat in the rain, fresh baked tamales when you’re making a pit stop, a place to stay, bike equipment, cash, or even invite you to a 4th of July party.
Changing Scenery
On a bike, you are going to see beautiful nature, beautiful humans, beautiful animals, sunsets, sunrises, architecture… You’ll see the terrain change and feel it. Compared to drywall and a framed photo of three-time Masters Champion Sir Nicholas Faldo, which do you think will lead to higher neurogenesis and plasticity?
Realizing What You Are Capable Of
Leaders are not immune to challenges, and receiving help from others. Strangers will help you. Teens will surprise you with what they teach you, and inspire you with their approach to life. Together you will lift each other up and towards your goal. When you’re done, you’ll look back in awe at how you pushed your boundaries and overcame discomfort to achieve an awesome goal.
Fluid Living
Every single member of your bike trip will learn to let go, to float instead of struggle, and live in the present. You will become Zen masters with ice cream fixations. In a world of prepackaged prescription and handholding, finding your own way is an invaluable skill to have, and leading a trip is the single best opportunity to do so I have found within a work environment.
Written by Teen Treks leader, James Dykstra