What have you done today to make you feel proud?

i step out of the ordinary, i can feel my soul ascending
I'm on my way, can't stop me now, and you can do the same.
what have you done today to make you feel proud?

-from the song "Proud" by Heather Small

This song, a current favorite, was in the soundtrack of Queer as Folk Season 1, Episode 1 when Brian contemplates his new life as a father at the roofdeck of a hospital (if my memory serves me right).

So what have I done today to make me feel proud? It's pretty shallow, but it meant a lot to me: I rode my bike. hahaha. Remember my post a few months ago? Well, a few weeks ago Daniel got me a second hand bike to practice on. It took a while, but finally I got my new second hand bike on the road.

It's very liberating being able to take the bike and not having to wait for the train or bus all the time. It gave me a new kind of independence.

Sometimes, we learn new things at the same time as we say goodbye to other things. You see, Daniel moved out a few weeks ago. Truth be told, Daniel is one of the few real friends I have had since I moved here. He was the person who always helped me make sense of this far off land that I'm in. Having him a mere room away made living in a foreign land a lot more bearable.

Now he's no longer there to fall back on...to translate things, to teach things, or just to keep me company. Time to take what he has taught me and move on with what I have learned.

Time to be free.

(Dramatically takes his bike and rides of to the forest at the edge of the city while camera pans up over the trees and into the sunset, while the the song Proud fades in...)

cause you could be so many people,
just make that breath for freedom
so what have you done today to make you feel proud?