Personal Narrative: My First Roller Coaster

I am a piece of clay, just as every person is. We will never be a set shape. Instead, we are molded. That molding depends entirely upon what molds us. At the beginning of life, we are molded by the hands of loving parents, but once we leave that safe-place, we are on our own. At that point, we can be tossed, slammed, poked at, and sometimes even ripped apart. One important event in my life that molded me and has helped make me the person I am today was my first roller coaster ride. Amusement rides don’t usually change a person’s life, but the first time I went on a roller coaster, I found myself stepping off the ride as an entirely different person. Most people conquer their fears on thrill rides, but instead, I conquered the one thing most people are terrified to face. Something that’s more horrific than monsters and demons, and that is yourself. For me, the ride was more of a journey than anything. From the beginning to the end, I learned a lot about myself, my life, and who I wanted to be during the duration of what felt like years, but lasted only minutes.

Life is a roller coaster. Throughout the duration of this short ride we call life; one can experience exciting and exhilarating highs, as well as terrifying, seemingly heart-stopping drops. However, everyone’s ride is different; every individual person on a different roller coaster. Some people’s rides are a lot smoother than others; while other’s rides are so turbulent one would think the entire roller coaster as a whole could come crashing down at any given moment. My life was a lot like the latter of those aforementioned two, and in many aspects, it still is. I have had my fair share of personal struggles that undoubtedly caused a generous amount of distress, however, the ups and downs of my rollercoaster are one of a kind in their own right and without them I would not be the individual I

The one thing I refused to do as a kid was ride roller coasters. I hated them. I hadn’t ridden one, but just looking at them I would be petrified. We were sitting at home watching TV when my mom informed us that we were going to Universal the next day. I excitement immediately struck me, thinking about all the things we could do, until I started to think about what would REALLY happen. I knew that my sister was going to pester me non-stop about riding one of those mechanical monsters. So, I decided it would be easier if as soon as we got there I tried to gather the courage to ride one. I lied in bed for hours trying to sleep, but to no avail, due to the excitement and nervousness about what would happen the next day. After a while I finally drifted off into refreshing sleep. In what felt like an instant my pillow was yanked out from under my head and my lights were turned on. “Wake up, we’re leaving in twenty minutes.” My sister screamed into my ear. Twenty minutes of rushed preparing later, and I was ready to go.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhh!” Screamed the crowd of people as they plummeted down a drop on one of the most terrifying roller coasters i've ever seen. We were on vacation in Universal Studios, Hollywood, and believe me, I was not pleased. My dad always says I shouldn’t be scared of roller coasters, but I don't listen to him. I’m terrified of roller coasters, so since he knows I don’t listen to him, he let my little sister choose the ride I had to go on, which almost scared me to death.

Roller Coaster… that word frightened me as a child. I was always the kid that sat on the bench with my grandma when we went to amusement parks. I would sit and watch my mom, grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins ride roller coasters and it terrified me. They always told me that they were so much fun and that I would love them and they are not scary. Well to me they seemed scarier than flying in an airplane while it was storming.

A roller coaster is to move, change, or occur in a dramatically changeable manner of a roller coaster. As you ride a roller coaster there are points within the ride that are a thrill and others that are a scare. When the cart starts going up to the top and you begin to get higher and higher the more anticipation that starts to build within you and the more your adrenaline starts to kick in and the higher you go the scarier it gets. The cart reaches the top and as it goes down the scarier it is as you have to go through all these twists and turns until finally, you reach the end. When the ride is over and as you are taking off your seat belt and as the lever rises up from your lap the person on the intercom says "thank you for riding life".

I am a piece of clay, just as every person is. We are not just any kind of clay, though, we’re that special molding clay that never dries out. Because of this, we are constantly molded by almost everyone and everything surrounding our lives. At the beginning of life, we are molded by the hands of loving parents, but once we leave that safe-place, we are on our own. At that point, we can be tossed, slammed, poked at, and sometimes even ripped apart. One important event in my life that molded me and has helped make me the person I am today was my first roller coaster ride. Amusement rides don’t usually change a person’s life, but the first time I went on a roller coaster, I found myself stepping off the ride as an entirely different person.

I woke up to the smell of breakfast. I took a quick glance at my phone and instantly I remembered what today was. The thought of roller coasters went through my head and I felt I had something more in my stomach than just butterflies. I dragged myself out of bed and went to the bathroom. I washed up and felt an instant feeling of relief. I then made my way to the living room where I found my siblings eating breakfast and talking through mouthfuls about how much fun they would have today. I wasn’t thinking the same. I was excited about riding roller coasters when my parents first mentioned it, but now I feel queasy whenever someone mentioned it. I sat down and had the usual breakfast I get each day. I was about to take my second bite of my bread

Clank, clank, clank, shooooooomp! Was the sound I heard, as I stood waiting for my friends in a crowd of people that looked huge because I was only ten years old, I was at the front gate of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. I finally spotted one of my friends Bree. Bree had her hair in two long golden french braids and black Nike shoes on. Once Bree saw me I waved and she waved back. Then I saw JJ and Gabby, they are sisters, JJ had her short blond hair down and Gabby had her brown hair in a ponytail. I waved to them and they both waved back. We all got in the only line that had shade because the hot sun was beating down on us since we had all arrived. As soon as we got in the park I smelled a warm, sweet, yummy smell. I looked around wondering

Not only did our house burn down but this is the last time I can remember my

My model replication of a roller coaster will resemble it in such ways as the factors of speed and the movement of coasters around the world. It will have the same aerodynamics and challenges a regular coaster will have. The only difference will be the size of the track compared to a regular track and the carts the people usually ride in will be replaced by a marble. All factors of inertia and the transfer of energy in a moving and stable object will all have an effect on the outcome on how successful the model is in the end.

"Why won't you ride this one at least? There's only one flip," my cousin repeatedly states in slightly altered ways to convince me to ride one roller coaster or the other. Time after time, I embarrassingly decline. I give an excuse, "You guys go on ahead, I gotta pee anyways." Why am I so opposed to roller coasters? I understand that they are safe, despite resembling a rampant dragon, but I've grown to appreciate being in control of my own body rather than violently thrusting about in a cart of rancid smelling tourists. Well, that's a lie. The true reason is that I am unequivocally fearful of flipping. This seemingly unambiguous fear of roller coasters is because of a predated motor vehicle accident when I was young.

My friend Clayton and I went to my aunts Linda’s house. Her and her husband George told me I could ride their golf cart. My uncle then told me how the controls worked. Then he drove with me to see if understood what the controls were. Afterwards, I rode around with Clayton having fun until he said, “I have to use the restroom.”

As a child, growing up meant being tall enough for the Twizzler-level rides at Hershey Park. Specifically, twelve twisting, turning, looping, stomach dropping, heart pounding, roller coaster rides. Each visit, I carried my platform flip flops, in my bag, ready to slip on at the measuring station. Crossing my fingers that today was the day!