I Believe in Parkour
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By
Joe Torrres

As kids we dream about growing up and having super powers and that our life would be comparable to a comic book. While some super powers are impossible to achieve I’ve managed to unlock some of Spiderman’s abilities. I believe in parkour. Parkour is the art of moving from one point to another as quickly and as efficiently as possible. One uses the body and momentum to do amazing feats such as running up and along walls or diving off buildings and sprinting away like nothing ever happened. In parkour there are no second chances. It forces one to put in their all and never give up or they could get hurt or just flat out not look as cool.

The summer of my senior year of high school, I went to Germany to visit my brother and his wife. One afternoon while my brother was at work, I decided to check out the town and see if I could find anything I could bring home to impress my friends. After a short walk I saw some kids practicing the sport I had come to love. I tried to talk to them with broken German; however I was only giving off the impression of a wide eyed American. So I decided to express myself in a different language, parkour. The kids were better than me by far and they taught me some moves. They motioned for me to follow them and at first I was wary. I was in a new place and they were speaking a language I had no knowledge of. However, I took this as a test of my skill and I followed them. We ran along rooftops, vaulted over fences, flipped off of electrical boxes and before I knew it we were on top of one of the biggest buildings in the neighborhood. As I leaned against a conveniently placed rail I looked up and was awe struck. In one direction were the beautiful, green hills and red, mysterious forests of Germany. In the distance I could make out the outlines of the small German villages and wineries. In the other direction, the city stretched on for what felt like miles and I couldn’t help myself but think of all the adventures that I could discover among this concrete jungle. I then realized that I was seeing the city and country in a whole new way and in a way that very few had.

Parkour had opened up my eyes to this adventure and in a way, to the adventure of life. Life and parkour are close to the same. We are each given obstacles and most of the time there are no second chances. Granted in life the obstacle isn’t always a wall to vault over or a gap to jump. It could be the impossible homework, the exasperating day at work, or the night of drama that won’t end. However I’ve learned, like parkour, one has to never give up and give it their all and it will be overcome and hopefully they will look cool doing it.