Bike delivery is over (for me)

Starting today, my days as a bike delivery boy are over. It's been about 7 months that were full of incredible things, some challenges and a lot of personal lessons.
I'm writing this post as a reminder/raport for myself. I'm posting it to share with you my take on all this, as some of you have been around since I've started posting about this "gig" of mine. You can check my history to see more of my bike-related posts..this one is more introspective.
As I said my good-byes, after my last delivery route was completed, biking home I realized I felt..well, a bit sad. I guess any ending is sad, especially if you're ending something that you enjoyed. Still I want to take a few moments to really look back at all this from start to finish and see what was good, what was bad and what could have been better and really put it to rest, going forward.
I hope you - the reader - will get something out of it as well.

First and last selfie on the bike

I started this in January after I randomly seen that this little food-place was looking for someone to bike deliver their menu. It felt like serendipity as I, too, have gotten the bike bug and I wanted to bike more...still, I had a big problem, I had nowhere to go!! Match made in heaven, right?

I jumped on my bike ( and this opportunity) and in one week I was hired and ready to start. It was a nice and fast process and made me feel a bit proud of my skills ( later it was revealed to me that I was the only one who applied for this job, January being cold as stones and all that. still a win, right?!?!? ).

My thinking was that doing something in the "service" business would be good for me. It's one thing to talk with people from a position of say "copywriter" or "ad-man" or "Steemit whales:P" and other when people see you just as a delivery guy. It's very interesting to see how people act with people that have no power over them and generally might perceive them as "inferior". I was curious to see what would transpire if I were in that position.

The second reason was that I wanted to do something physical, push my limits a bit, try to see if I can handle this + the weather. Bike delivery is young man's game as they say and at 30, no one would really think it's the right time to jump in this "career" but this is how things synced and I can not turn time back. So I took the challenge, took the ride and voila! Still alive :)

The third reason was that I wanted to do something with more meaning and social-aspect.
In December last year, my main income as from being a pro poker player and another part from copywriting. I have a big problem with how much it matters what I do.
In fact, one of the reasons I love STEEMIT is because it seemed, at times, that some of my posts matter. In fact, a lot of my posts try to bring some positive change or help some people to understand some stuff that I do and that I think it's important to. I crave meaning in my work...so I thought. HEY! Delivering FOOD to hungry people is useful in itself. I don't have to derive meaning by some mental gymnastics. It is meaningful in its own because it has a direct utility.
There's no need for ANOTHER poker pro, but look, they need someone to deliver the food!

Money was never a reason in this case and of course, I was not payed much anyway. But I did love the tips...those again, had some meaning :) I am yet unsure to understand what no tip means, sometimes a heinous person, sometimes a frugal personal, sometimes something else completely. This is one of the big lessons. Tipping is curtesy, at least in my country. I had clients tip me 20% for a 10 minute bike ride. I had clients send me numerous messages with various requests and tipping nothing. I try not to judge but that's pretty hard not to...

The social-aspect refers to the fact that most of my "work" happens from home.
I do not get many chances to interact with new people and I don't really meet a lot of people by default. I felt the need to be more surrounded by people and I thought this could be a chance right here. Mostly with the people cooking the food, which I knew about and liked from the little i did know about.

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That was my thought process 7 months ago.
Today, I had to face how I really did. I'll start with the positive part.

I remember the first day, I was on my first shift, had 3 orders in 3 locations that I did not know exactly how to get to. I had my phone with me but ran out of battery in the middle of the shift. I could not call, nor gps my way to these orders. I panicked!
.
.
.
Then I took a deep cold breath and said to myself.
|

I can do this!
And you know, I did it. It was difficult and stressful and I got home mentally terminated. Yet, the next day was easier and so on so forth.
The way I biked in the first weeks vs how I bike now is incredibly different. I was such a noob and did not know the tricks of the trade. I used to make about 30 minutes from home to work, which today was down to maybe 20. I am not really faster, just smarter.
It does get easier with time no matter how unlikely this seems at the start.

I had to move over fears. Fear of not hearing when talking people on the phone ( true, but I worked around it). Fear of people laughing at me for doing this at 30+. Fear of people not liking me at work. Fear of getting hit by a car. Fear of the unexpected. Fear of fking a order up. Fear of being yelled at by customers. Fear of saying, doing or acting stupidly in the kitchen ( I also helped a bit there ). My life is a sum of fears but I had to face them day in day out on the bike and they retreated a bit.
Not forever and not for long but they did.
Next time it will be easier.

I have a lot to be proud of:

• I delivered over 700 orders and never had a bad delivery. I think that;s a nice record do have.
• I biked over 2000km.
• I lost about 2kg ( could have been more but I got a LOT of food from work, a lot of dessert and you know how tempting that is :)
• I took no days off, always there no matter if it rained, snowed or was hot as hell.

Riding a bike or really, any physical job, has a very interesting effect on the mind. I had a lot of great ideas while riding, going from A to B, almost on autopilot. It was calming and refreshing...simple. I loved that it took no effort, no decision to make, nothing. I felt serene. I only had to go from A to B.
In the best of conditions, this was a fun ride. In the worst: a slow, punishing trudge through molasses. But always, at its core, simple. Go to B. My mind was working at 20% and I always got home mentally recharged. That was unexpected.
If I was angry or tired or depressed, there was a quick fix: ride faster. Go harder. Sweat. Deliver. Get home. Beat your time.
I end up feeling cheery by the time I got back home.
It's something I'd recommend anyone who feels stressed and always ON -for example, if you have a crypto obsession!. Do something physical with abandon.

But lastly, the bad parts.
I think I missed on my social part. I am not sure why, but I can not say I got to know these people all that well. I might have not made enough effort. I could have tried to ask more questions, maybe see them in a different setting. I am not sure, it is difficult, kitchens are fast crazy environments. There's not time to chitchat!
Also, my hearing is partly to blame. It is very hard to hear in all those kitchen sounds. I usually got there when food was almost cooked, we had to pack the food in bags in leave fast. It was only time for a joke or two, everyone was fast and stressed, eager to finish.
After work, I could have maybe stayed more, tried to bond a bit. But again, same thing...there was always something going on in the kitchen.
Ultimately, is about chemistry too. It might have just not been there and we did not have enough time to discover it.

My hearing loss is a wall against me displaying my "real" personality as fast as I want to. It takes longer to get to know me, recognize me so to say, "get me". I know that...I need a bit of time to warm up to new people too so that's a factor in itself.
No matter the reasons, in the end, I was an outsider and remained one till the end. When I left, they did not lost anything I think.
I doubt I'll be missed.
It's weird but this is making me sad. I should not care but it bugs me. Maybe I'm wrong.

I'll end this on a good note though. I am incredibly happy to have gone through all this and I knew from the start that it had a time constraint on it from the beginning. We must go forward and embrace new opportunities as they appear and leave behind things that fitted our life in the past. It's the way life works.

I am ready for the next step.
I got this!

Thank you for reading if you made it this far.
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