The Biggest Ride

This was it. The most daring thing she had ever done. She was incredibly nervous, her stomach filled with butterflies, her hands unable to stop fidgeting, and her thoughts and heart racing. She was with two of her best friends, one of whom was celebrating her birthday. Just minutes earlier, her friends had dared her to go on a huge ride, something she had always refused to do. Ever since her childhood, she always looked on at this long, tall wooden structure whenever she came here and wondered how anyone could go on it without feeling anything other than fear and worry. She asked her friends to reconsider, but in response, they joked they would call her cowardly if she didn’t. She finally gave in, buying her ticket and waiting in the long line, anxiously waiting for this horrifying situation to be over.

As she got closer and closer to the inevitable, she stared ahead of her at the long wooden tracks, laid out in a seemingly unstable but supposedly safe way. On these seemingly unsafe tracks, there were five connected wooden carts that could fit around six people each. The carts were painted yellow and red, the paint faded by the heat of the sun and over thirty years of use. She was more frightened than ever now, looking out at these large carts waiting for her turn on the ride she thought she would never ride. She was more afraid now than she had maybe ever been in her entire life. She couldn’t have been more scared if she so much as tried to think of something scarier. Her fears of enclosed spaces and dark rooms were nothing compared to the fear she felt now. Eventually, she came back to reality and realized that the line ahead of her had shortened. It was her turn to get into the carts. She stepped into the hollow space inside the front cart, and her two friends followed suit, sitting next to her.

The safety belts were fastened and the carts started to move slowly. As she moved ever so surely up a steep incline, she suddenly realized she couldn’t turn back. She had made her decision, and she couldn’t back out of it now. The carts reached the top of the incline and suddenly started falling at an incomprehensible speed. Moving at a velocity she never thought was possible, she cowered in terror, holding onto the safety bar in front of her and closing her eyes, not willing to look ahead. Once the carts reached the end of this declining path, however, she got the courage to open her eyes and look out. She braced herself for the worst, feeling a sudden sense of dread for her own life. She started feeling the exact opposite: she was excited. The steep drops, sharp turns, and high speeds thrilled her like never before. She felt more excited, more amazed… more alive… than she had ever felt in all of her fourteen years. About halfway through the ride, she, along with her two friends and those gathered in the carts behind her, were so enthralled that they raised their hands up over their heads and whooped with joy. The first minute or so felt like three hours, but those last two minutes passed by like they were only fifteen seconds.

When the carts came to a slow and steady stop, she secretly wished that she could go back. She leaped out of the cart, jumping about with great energy, and with her two friends walked away from the building. She looked behind her, staring in awe at the tall, wooden structure again, watching the next few people in the line get into the hollow carts, simultaneously excited and afraid for what was about to come in the same way she was. She was filled with pride, knowing that she had gotten the courage to try something she never would have tried otherwise and enjoyed immensely. As the trio walked through the park to see if there were any other fun rides they might want to try, she exclaimed to her friends that she wished to go on the ride again. Her friends just smiled and laughed, happy that she had conquered her fear and gone on the biggest ride.