Riding Thousands of Kilometers in Ten Days, the Youths Who Grew Up in Bad Backgrounds will be Breaking the Wind for His Team on the Cycling Trip Across Taiwan

Young people who wanted to prove to themselves, that they C-A-N! From the Newspapers, translated…

Starting three years ago, the “Turn-Around League” took a group of children who had their share of hardships in life to bicycle around the island, and through this ten-day, over a thousand kilometer trip, it’d helped the children know themselves, to establish their lacking in self-confidence, which became, their drives for change; three years ago, the league is stronger, this time, there will be 250 youths who will be riding, against the wind.

This biggest adolescent bicycle riding with fourteen separate afterschool programs of education from fourteen different cities and counties, and there are, over 250 youths who grew up hard who are involved, from the elementary school years to the high school age, they will be separated into three teams, starting on July 23^rd, the three teams are setting out from Danshui in Hsinbei City, Hsianshan, Hsinchu, and Lugang, Changwha.

The stamina of these young cyclists is the first trial. For six months, as the students trained themselves to ride, they’d not, dared lifting up their feet, and needed the instructors to pull on their seats to start, to the point where they started, riding like the wind, they’d, ridden uphill, and fought for the qualifications to ride around the island themselves, they’d already, been tried in the lesson of not giving up.

The seventeen-year-old Tsai had been a rebellious youth, in class, he’d not only acted up, he’d also, talked back to his instructors, made the volunteer instructors cries, and now, he’d turned into this older, more mature young man whom everybody looked for guidance, this time, he will be, riding along with the younger students. Yesterday he’d shared his story, said that he’d not done well in school growing up, that even his classroom instructor didn’t think much of him, he’d started, disbelieving himself too, until he’d entered into the Home of Dreams program, received help in the academics, and in his second year of middle school, he’d, joined on the riders’ squad, and gotten to know himself again, learned to be patient in his own life, went from making the lowest grade in his class, to scoring the second highest scores.

This was the twelve-year-olds Lin and Tseng’s first times, the two both had that never-defeated attitude about them. Lin in her practice cycling rounds, was impacted by the downpour, as she had her period, and yet, she’d still, pedaled on, weathered through the pains, refused to get a ride in the van, and, as her instructor kept consoling with her, she’d finally, allowed herself to rest. Tseng’s parents both died when she was young, but she believed herself to be optimistic, “I’m really looking forward to this cycling trip.”

This was the eighteen-year-old, Lee from Chiayi’s first time, he was raised by his grandparents, needed to part-time through his schooling career. He said, from this trip, he’d learned about independence, friendship, and persistence, and on the way, there would be the scorching sun, the pouring rain, the hard-to-ride over slopes, in order to break up the pains of riding uphill, the cyclists would take turns, being the first of the line, it was, unforgettable for him.

And, through this road trip, these teens learned about themselves, gotten to realize their own strengths, and this would be, a very positive experience for all of these young men and women, because after this physical trip, riding their bicycles around the island on their own, there’s, nothing in life that they can’t conquer anymore.