For the Love of Wash Cycling

6 years ago (nearly to the day), I decided to leave the highest paying job I've had to date. You know that old saying "Money can't buy happiness," right? For me, it's true.

After I left that job, I made several promises to myself: I'd never again work full time for another company that didn't share my beliefs, I'd never again compromise my sanity for the almighty dollar, and I'd never let my job define my life.

Funny how things work out. I said "so long" (not goodbye) to Wash Cycle Laundry on Friday, after 3 years, 6 months, and 27 days. In that time, my job very much helped to define who I am and what I love to do.

I still can't believe this is real. I'm still here in Philly for the next few days, but it's different. My morning routine didn't exist today. I didn't hop on my bike to ride up to North Philly this morning. No stop on the way to pick up a newspaper or coffee. No pulling the trike outside and stacking it full of bags. No greeting from my teammates Mildred and Tracey offering me Tastykakes and coffee and politely declining because I've already had coffee and breakfast. But I digress...

Before I moved to Philly, I didn't even own a bike.

My bike got stolen when I was in college and I never bothered to replace it. Soon after I moved here, I decided that my car wasn't going to cut it for my everyday routines. Walking and public transit were helpful, but having a bike became a necessity due to gas costs and parking scarcity in the areas I frequented.

Even after I got one, biking didn't become my daily routine until one random day when I was researching a green-friendly towel solution for the Strengthening Health Institute, a non-profit macrobiotic cooking and lifestyle school I was working part-time for at the time (I'll write more about them in another post). Wash Cycle Laundry came up in my search. The service ultimately didn't work out for our needs, but I saw they were hiring, and I needed another part-time gig, so I figured "What the heck?" I applied. I mean, I could drag laundry on a bike, right?

I showed up for my job interview, way over-dressed but not nervous at all. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when I showed up in a shirt and tie for a bike laundry delivery job...to be interviewed by two dudes in t-shirts and jeans. In any case, it went well (as you probably guessed) and I became a Wash Cyclist in October 2014.

Needless to say, I fell in love with biking laundry.

Being a Wash Cyclist became the thing I most looked forward to, even in the dead of Winter or the swelter of Summer. It's not often I've been able to say that about a job. Day in, day out, I loved to do what I (we) did, and I loved the people who surrounded me. I've made several lifelong cyclist friends, not to mention the family-like feeling I got from the laundry team every single day.

More than that, I loved to tell people what we did and how we did it, so much so that it led me to start this here blog back in January of 2015. Where the heck would I be without this thing? No idea. Thank the universe that my supervisors noticed this little corner of the interwebs that I've carved out for myself. It led to an increased role in marketing the company, where I could officially tell our stories to the masses.

And in case you didn't notice, I fell in love with biking in general.

Biking to and from work and even outside of work became my lifestyle. I remember my first couple weeks on the job, I would feel guilty driving my car to work because it just seemed anti-bike for some reason. The only time you'd see me not riding a bike was in the thick of a blizzard or some other terrible weather event.

Everything else became routine on a bike: grocery shopping, social gatherings, and so on. It floored me one day when someone referred to me as "the bike guy," even though I know there are many other people out there who know and ride more than even I do. You can't hide passion. Among other things, I loved having the opportunity to ride more than 600 miles in a month several times over, and shouting it out to the world. Riding a bike has led me to some amazing places and personalities.

I also fell in love with this city.

I moved here into a dingy room above a bar with not much more than what I had in my car. I leave here in a few days a much wealthier person not so much monetarily, but in experiences and friendships. In addition to being referred to as "the bike guy," some know me as "the Philly guy." I wouldn't be that guy without my bike. Being a cyclist every day really connected me with this city, and in turn, everyone in it. Someone once told me that's the gift of cycling: you're basically forced to interact with your environment, and you can't tune out (like so many motorists do). I'm certain that all of the bonds I've formed here and things I've seen have had that much more of an impact on me because I've experienced them on two wheels.

It's rather fitting that I left Wash Cycle in the midst of a move, because I started my time there in the midst of a move, in one of the most tense weeks of my life. History repeats itself, or something. It's always been a job that has challenged me in all the right ways, not just physically, and without challenges, we don't learn or become who we're supposed to be. I don't think I can say enough about how much this place has done for me. Bicycling has become my life, and I owe a lot of it to my job. It literally helped define my life, one promise I'm glad to have broken.