Citizen Science Column #29 by Jamie Zvirzdin

Discovering the Secret of the Rocky Road of Life

This is a true story, and it is mine. The secret, however, can also be yours.

One Saturday morning in the early 1990s, when I was around 8 years old, my father and I kept to our tradition: he, a runner, would jog next to my bike as we wandered through the suburban streets of Murray, Utah. As I became stronger and older, we started exploring farther and farther from home. I loved my bike: It was light blue with white pedals and a pink seat, and I felt important as we blew past my neighbors’ houses and started traversing new streets.

This particular Saturday morning, however, took us on a circuitous, tiring route that ended suddenly as we sought to return home. Before us stretched an unpaved road, slightly inclined and rough with chunky gravel. Some ways away, the other end of this rocky road connected back to our regular streets. Rather than retracing the long route back, we started down this rocky road, and I began complaining bitterly. This was entirely unlike the smooth, easy streets I was used to.

My clever father, instead of telling me to quit complaining, started a conversation that went something like this, as I recall it:

“Jamie, do you know what the name of this road is?”

“No!”

“It is called the Rocky Road of Life, and it has a secret.”