Goodbye Law Firm, Hello Cycling Charity!

Sustrans' Dr Bike at work at a local middle school

I was made redundant just before last Christmas, at a tricky time in my legal career: not yet qualified but no rank beginner. Job listings right now seem to seek 4+ years post-qualification or untried trainee. I tried a three-month stint as a legal PA, only for that to reinforce my theories as to what I truly find stressful and soul-destroying. No more.

So what next?

Since leaving London for the rural delights of Bedfordshire, I've had some exposure to the work being done by the Travel Choices Hub in Dunstable. This is a project funded by local government but operated by Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity. I applied for a "Schools & Communities Officer" role there a few weeks ago. I didn't get it, solely due to my complete lack of schools/teaching experience. However, the Hub's co-ordinator spotted qualities in me that she thought potentially too valuable to "let get away". So she got approval to hire me as an "Events & Hub Assistant" on a casual basis for four months, working as many hours as I want!

I started on Tuesday. It has been a non-stop whirlwind. 
So far I have assisted with:

• a School Assembly presentation for children in Years 4 & 5 (ages 11-12), including running a Brompton Challenge (a timed unfold contest between a team of 2 girls and a team of 2 boys). One of the boys effectively won it single-handledly... and desperately wants a Brompton!
• an After School Club - which was a group cycling lesson for children aged approx. 6-8. Six weeks ago, none of these kids could balance on a bike. This week, they tried walking their bikes through a simple obstacle course, steering it only by the saddle.
• a Bikers' Breakfast for children aged 4-5, who, to be honest, hadn't cycled - they only had to have got to school by a "sustainable transport" means. The small shy girl who admitted that she had "only walked part of the way" was a winner in my book. (The school is in fact running a trial of closing their road to cars during the morning school run, so this was true for all the children!)
• another Bikers' Breakfast, this time for children in year 6.
• an all-day Dr. Bike session. I got to brush up on my mechanical skills and learn a few new ones, such as how to balance V brakes and adjust both the high and low limiters on rear derailleurs... the latter having been a great mystery to me 'til now!
• booking Rollapaluza for an upcoming town festival.
• keeping company with the slowest walkers on a Led Walk on a 1 mile loop through local woodlands, for employees on an industrial estate.
• another After School Club, this time back at the first school with Years 4 & 5 - who remembered me from the Brompton Challenge and shouted Hellos as I cycled up to the schoolyard! We practiced U-turns in a steadily shrinking "box". The session ended with a relay race where the hand-off was a complete stop and High Five. We needed 5 children per team for this but only had 9 in total... so guess who pinch-hitted in the first "cycle race" of her life?!
• setting up the Hub's main public space for an Open-House style Workshop running tomorrow.
• filling drawstring gym bags with sand to serve as weights for the legs of two gazebos going up at events being held on Monday.
• delivering leaflets advertising events running during Bike Week to the local library and several cafes.
• planning a journey for a recently-widowed lady taking her family to London tomorrow to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. She had no idea what trains or underground services to get, as her husband "used to take care of stuff like this"! She left the Hub with a printed itinerary in hand, confident she knew how to get to her destination and armed with tips for how to adapt her travel plans if, for instance, a train is missed. Empowerment - that's what we're all about!
• Oh and... today I put myself on the list for a free NHS Health Check (the Hub does these on Fridays). Apparently I have the best cholesterol levels the two nurses usually have an opportunity to see in the course of their work, and the resting heart rate and blood pressure of an athlete!!

This is by far the most physically exhausting job I've ever done. It's constant go, go, go... most of it by bike, but lots too on foot.   Exhausting, yes, but emotionally far more rewarding than I imagined, much less hoped for. A real career change and, to be honest, a chance to put my money where my mouth is on the subject of sustainable transport. Active travel indeed! And I am loving it!