6 minute read
Charting A Course
2014 Alumnus Completes Pandemic Trek
When Michael English ’14 was young, he always looked forward to when his “cool Uncle Tim” would visit from California. With most of Michael’s family based in the Boston area, Tim was the uncle who came from afar with many stories to tell. One of Michael’s favorites was hearing about his uncle’s six bicycle treks across the United States. Growing up, Michael always held in the back of his mind the idea that he too might one day go on such an adventure.
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When the world slowed down in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, Michael began cycling as a way to stay fit when his local gym closed. His childhood dream of biking across the country began to once again bubble to the surface. With so much uncertainty impacting life, this young Wolverine decided to jump into this time of disruption in a big way, embarking on a 2,500 mile journey from Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, California along a route known as the Southern Tier Bike Trek.
Two of Michael’s high school friends decided to join him for the trip, and shortly before their departure, the Arlington, Massachusetts natives decided to turn their ride into a fundraiser for mental health. Their journey ended up gaining much more media attention than Michael expected, in some ways adding additional pressure on the trio to ensure they found success on the road.
In December of 2020, Michael arrived at his destination in San Francisco, California. Since returning home just a few short months ago, this young man has had time to reflect on his life-changing adventure and what he learned about himself along the way.
In a recent interview with Bridgton, Michael shared some of his favorite parts of the trip. “Every blog I read and everyone I talked to before the trip warned me ‘Be prepared for Texas, it’ll kick your butt,’” English reflected. “The Texas stretch was actually my favorite part of the journey. It was gorgeous. The people we met there were pretty amazing. The leg from Del Rio to El Paso was full of these tiny towns every fifty miles or so. The people who lived in this area; they were interesting and had a lot of character. Even though it was desert, the scenery was pretty amazing.”
Michael shared that seeing different parts of the country and waking up in a new place each and every day gave him a lot of time to reflect on his own life. “I think at age 25, I was struggling a bit with where I was and what I wanted my life to be. A trip like this really puts a hyper focus on certain aspects of your reality. You have to mature really quickly. In some ways, I think this journey was similar to what my Bridgton experience was like. I was doing something really different, something that I had never done before—this put a microscope on my own challenges and insecurities, and really brought some of those things into focus for me.”
The group dynamics of traveling with two others proved to be a bit more difficult to navigate than Michael had initially anticipated as well. “We talked at the start about how we might get a little sick of each other,” English recalls. “Some of these little conflicts began to come to the surface after a few weeks on the road. We had different ideas about how we wanted to go about some aspects of our ride. Eventually, we started to figure out that we needed to be able to find a balance within our group to make things work. We needed to learn how to give and take—how to make sure that everyone felt like they were recognized. That was a big piece that I knew we had to figure out if we were going to accomplish what we set out to do.”
The trio certainly achieved their goal, reaching the west coast faster than they expected and running an incredibly successful fundraiser for mental health along the way. That said, the trek was not without hardship. For Michael, it was the strangers willing to lend a hand who left the greatest impact. “We met these amazing people—total strangers who were willing to help us out. In these small communities, there was always someone who could point us in the direction of someone else who could help with whatever challenge we were facing. I remember we had to visit one bike shop along the way when we were dealing with [yet another] flat tire. An older man owned the shop, probably in his 80s. We were just over twenty miles from his store when the wheel he sold us went flat. In the middle of nowhere, we weren’t sure what to do, so we called him. This old guy immediately closed his shop for the day and
Michael English, right
drove over 20 miles to meet us with a new tire. It was pretty incredible. This kind of thing just kept happening over and over.”
“Back home, sometimes it feels like we have limited trust in others. We can walk by people instead of lending a helping hand. This trip has made me want to do so much more to help others. It really allowed me to personally recognize that all of us are just humans on our own mission of life. Everyone is trying to do something, change something, and make something better. We have to learn to trust others. Recognize that we are all sharing this journey, and lend a hand.”
After 54 days filled with seeing new destinations, meeting new people, and charting his own adventure, Michael’s cross-country journey came to an end. After sightseeing for a bit in California, Michael made his way home to Massachusetts, ready to settle back into the life he had left behind. It was perhaps not until his return home that Michael realized how much his journey had changed him. “My first week at home was really strange. I honestly felt very lost for a while. It probably took me a month to process everything I had experienced. Everyone was asking me ‘what’s next for you,’ and what my next adventure would be. I think I was struggling to figure out my priorities. I had a new perspective, and it’s taking me some time to balance that with where my life is and was.”
Since he’s been home, Michael has come to terms with a few things, namely the notion that finding your passion can take time. He’s come to recognize that work is more important when it feeds who you are and helps to make a positive impact, and that feeling good about what you do matters. And, at 25, he realizes that finding one’s way is a journey—and certainly an exciting one at that.
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Michael English is a 2014 alumnus of Bridgton Academy and a 2018 Pace University graduate. Currently a realtor in Boston, he is excited to be exploring his next steps. Michael rode 2,500 miles from October 2020 through December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, raising over $37,000 dollars in support of mental health awareness.
