Bike Borrowers (Day5)

"I was a bike borrower once," divulged shamelessly the man at my side. We conversed in a room full of listening people while I was waiting for my TB test. There were deep sea fish on every wall that you turned to, striking colors and beautiful forms buried under fathoms of  water, waiting to be discovered. "Sweet," I responded, "tell me more."

Numerous bikes are "borrowed" every semester here at BYU-I.  "It's pretty ridiculous," commented Marry Moss, "It's probably because there is nothing else to do in Rexburg. "I didn't know that anybody did that," charmed in Matt Rascone. The views and the awareness vary widely when it comes down to bike borrowing here on campus. 

Here's how it is generally thought to go- a late student running down the sidewalk to class, sees an unsecured bicycle, pauses to think, and then hops on it to carry him the rest of the way to class. When the unsuspecting and trusting owner comes out of class, they notice that the bike is gone. They may report the missing bike to campus security, who proceed to perform a search of the campus and generally find it in some bike rack at the opposite end of campus. The culprit rarely caught. When asked about this the campus security responded that most students are unfortunately unaware of this still, even though it has been published in the Scroll, the campus newspaper various times. Two women said that it lowered their faith in the students

"My friends bike was stolen," told Moss, "then he found it again."The friend (friend b) of her friend (friend a)  arrived at the house of a study group member ready to learn more and apply the teachings they had been learning in class, when he saw what looked like Friend A's bike, in a wide open area in the complex. After calling Friend A over to take a look at the bike, it was decided that it was indeed the stolen and missing bike. The consequences are not known at this time.

The man at my side had his black hair up in a fo-hawk, a few Volcom labels dispersed on his clothing. Everybody in the room seemed to be a bit uneasy at this mans open confession of once being a bike borrower- as if it were some great crime.

"I usually returned them back," he stated. "I did it for fun mostly, in the middle of the night, just grabbed a bike and took it around, I 'borrowed' it, I wasn't out to trash it or anything." He said that he did not ever do it out of necessity, or to get to class on time, but one-hundred percent for fun, for the excitement, for the adrenaline. "I left the school, went on a mission, and decided that that probably wasn't a good idea, and that I should probably be more respectful." 

The woman in the white dress and the white gloves called him in, selected him from us to move on to the next stage. 

"Would you lock your bike now if you had one?" 

"I would definitely lock it."

He had been chosen. I stayed behind with the fish, and the interested people.

Who once borrowed now would lock.

A little Kramer anyone?