“He had laughed at me when I told him that I too wanted to join his social-sports cycling club, which was open even to novices. “That’s ridiculous, you’ll never keep up. You’re so pocket. You have no talent.” Those words had stuck with me, as had so many of his too many words of denigration, indifference, and criticism during our life together. For years, I was crushed by his dislike. I thought I would die. One day, after at least six attempts to leave him over several years, I decided to get up once and for all, to spit in my hands, to get on my horse, and to “leave him for good” in order to go to the end of the world, 1200 kilometers away from my home. In reality, I had already left him a long time ago. I had to leave the trauma that this relationship had inescapably engraved in me. I had to reverse this trauma at all costs. I had to create a “positive” trauma if I really wanted to heal. And I was going to fight it where it had attacked me too often: my lack of talent. It was the bike – and the allies in my path – that saved my life. You never know how much stronger you are than you think. Like many people, it was doubt that most often nailed me to the spot. The immense doubt about my abilities, my worth. When I realized that I had no reason at all to question myself so much, that was the day I started to heal for real, to move forward and that the world opened up to me, with all its possibilities. Because everything depended on the answer to this one and only question: who did I really want to be? And who, above all, did I not want to be?