You must be loyal. If you find yourself on campus on this Friday afternoon, your first-Friday-after-returning-from-spring-break afternoon no less, reading the Optimist opinion page (and not just for the tweets), you must be one of our most loyal readers.
And if you’re a very loyal upperclassman, you may remember (but honestly, there’s no way you would) that around this time last year our former managing editor Josh Garcia wrote not one, but two stories, and a column about campus bike thefts.
And I made fun of him for it.
“Josh, no one cares about bike theft,” I said like the snarky copy editor I was. “Just because your bike was stolen doesn’t mean everyone is suddenly concerned about one of the most common misdemeanors.”
Oh how I mocked him. I laughed at his growing relationship with ACUPD and at his growing bitterness toward all Abilene cyclists.
Well karma has reared its sardonic head and I now owe Josh an apology because yesterday my bike was stolen. The bully became the victim right before my eyes as I stared at my severed bike lock lying on the ground, still recoiling from its late night encounter with a pair of bolt cutters.
I’m not in Abilene. I live in a large city where these occurrences are expected to happen. But you never expect them to happen to you. And city or suburb, the bitterness is just the same.
As I reflect on some of the recent memories with my transitive pal, I am thankful for the time we got to spend together touring the insanity that is the South by Southwest festival in Austin. You maneuvered me in and out quickly, avoiding all the traffic endured by so many tourists who come for SXSW. Sure, you may not have been the most valuable bike on the market, or the most stylish, often overlooked by UT students with cool hipster street bikes. But you served me well and I know that after your captor sells you to a pawn shop for Taco Bell money, you will serve your next owner just as loyally.
And thank you, loyal reader, for following this bike theft saga I’m continuing on. And for loyally riding along.
