A few days ago I went to to unlock my bike from the apartment carpark and was met with a surprise: my front wheel had been stolen. Not the back wheel, not even my lights – just the front wheel. My bike, which normally hung from the rack by the front wheel, now dangled like a dead branch. The only thing holding it to the rack was my D-lock. It looked pathetic, like something from a trash pile.

What was worse was that just one year ago my previous bike had been stolen from this same carpark, in nearly the same spot. And around that time my housemate’s front wheel had been stolen from this spot too. It was a little absurd that this kept happening.

This morning I dragged my broken bike to the bike store to buy a new wheel. Dragged is an appropriate verb – the store is usually a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute bike ride but this arrangement took 30 minutes. A bike without a front wheel is difficult to walk because you need to hold up the front of the frame so it doesn’t fall on the ground and so you are left holding constant bicep curls. It was like pushing a poorly designed, obese unicycle. Due to this awkward situation my half-bike and I could not move faster than a crawl and we were frequently met with looks of pity from passers-by. And all this time I knew that once we eventually reached the bike store, the cost would be at least $200 for a replacement. It was all very sad and I began to feel sorry for myself.

But during this walk, near the peak of my irritation, I stopped at a red traffic light and looked up at the sky. There I was met with a gorgeous canvas of grey and blue. It was mesmerising, a serene mix between sunny and cloudy. Around me I heard dogs barking, couples laughing and two high schoolers hollering as they rode scooters past me without helmets on. And all of a sudden, I realised that it was a beautiful day and this trivial bike problem nearly made me miss it.

A strange thing happens when we see that there is good in the world, and that it is worth noticing and fighting for – our worries begin to dissolve. When put in the grand scheme of the universe, what was once a tragedy now becomes trivial. We are free to laugh at ourselves and take ourselves less seriously. It is a feeling of lightness.

Being the hero of our imagination is in many ways, a curse. When we have the spotlight on ourselves by default we miss the world passing by. We miss vivid colours, beautiful sounds and heavenly tastes. We miss interesting conversations, complex ideas and kind people. It’s like playing Pokemon and never leaving your house. There is so much more to learn, live and explore.

Let us open our eyes and see what we can with them before they close forever.