I got my first bike when I was a 9-year-old living in Israel. It was one of those little BMX bikes that a friend of mine got rid of when he upgraded to a full-size adult bicycle. He taught me how to ride it, and about a year later, my great uncle got me my own 21-speed bicycle, which I rode all the time. I rode it to school everyday even though the trip was barely five minutes, and I rode with friends around the neighborhood on days when there was no school.

When I was 13 and my dad moved the family to England, I was devastated and saddened at the thought of leaving behind what I saw as a comfortable life in Jerusalem. A few weeks before the move, my bike was stolen – only to reappear in front of my house three days later. It turns out that as a going-away present, a bunch of my friends got together, stole my bike and pimped my ride. They had it fitted with a brand new gel seat, handle bar ends, suspension for the front wheel and a little speedometer computer gadget.

I was ecstatic. But sadly, the bike would sit in a shed behind my house in London for the next five years. Not only was I too lazy to get my bike out of the shed and carry it through the house, but my part of London – and in particular the route I would have taken to school – was uncommonly hilly and a pain to ride. What’s more, the weather in England is so unpredictable and wet that to take my bike anywhere would have just been stupid. Consequently, I rode a lot of buses and trains until my friends all got cars, at which point I became a champion moocher.

But I am now a college student and I live on a campus in a city with a topography that is practically two-dimensional, and I’ve been riding my bike everywhere for about a year now. I ride to class, between classes, to meetings, on bike trails around my neighborhood at home, as well as on rocky hiking trails that were not at all intended for bicycles. Speeding down bike trail hills, switching gears and accelerating on a bicycle are exhilarating. It’s probably similar to the way a lot of people find driving manual cars more enjoyable than driving their boring automatic counterparts. I guess you could say it has become a hobby of mine.

Biking is not only exciting, but it’s also quite practical. For one, it’s a lot faster than walking. A bike will get you anywhere on the campus in fewer than five minutes. This is convenient when you have a cramped schedule or if you’re just the kind of person for whom it is important to get things done expeditiously.

Another great thing about riding a bike is that it saves money. Find another vehicle that tops a bicycle’s miles per gallon. Riding a bike is a great way of coping with the rise in gas prices and is far less damaging to the environment than a car. Also, when was the last time you saw a bike sitting in traffic?

So if you’re looking for a way to make your life a little easier, and perhaps more enjoyable, I would recommend acquiring a bike for the coming semester. Also, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to all those who have been inconvenienced by a bike whizzing past on the way to class. I have yet to hit anybody but if I’ve scared you, I am sorry.

Shai Goller is an English and studio art major and a designer and a cartoonist for The Diamondback. He can be reached at sgoller@umd.edu.