How To Save A Life.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." ~Frank Herbert

When I was about six years old, my parents took me and my younger sister on a week-long roadtrip to the Carolinas. We saw family and visited Native American reservations and hiked and barbecued and the whole nine yards. At around the end of the trip we went to a Six Flags theme park.

All in all it was really fun. I rode all the kiddy rides twice or three times with my sister and ate enough corn dogs and cotton candy to last me a lifetime. After I had exhausted my food supplies, my mother asked me if I wanted to go on one of the bigger coasters before we left. I, being the naive and unsuspecting child that I was, agreed.

I never really considered how fast the thing would be. Or that it looped upside down (scaaary). The teen working at the ride checked my height and strapped me in and everything and then we were off.

Pretty much all I could see once the ride started was sky and ground and sky and ground. This, in addition to the speed and the shaking and the wind rushing in my ears, terrorized me. That and of course the fact that the straps of my seat barely held my skinny butt in and so my mother was scared out of her mind trying to shove me further into the seat with her arm.

Honest to god, my mother was screaming at the top of her lungs: "MY DAUGHTER'S GOING TO FALL OUT OF HER SEAT. OH MY GOD, SHE'S GOING TO DIE. SHE'S GOING TO DIE!!!"

I truly believed then that I was going to drop off of the ride that instant and die a very bloody, painful death.

Before I knew it though, the ride was over and I was fine. I hadn't fallen out, hadn't gotten hurt, hadn't freaking died. *glares at mother*

I was, however, stricken and from that moment onward I avoided setting foot on any roller coaster that went faster than 10 miles an hour or rose higher than a story.

Last summer, though, while visiting my aunt in California, we all went to Knott's Berry Farm at Buena Park. Usually when I go to theme parks, I have someone to sit with until all the thrill-seekers are done playing on the giant coasters. This time though, there wasn't really anybody to sit with me and after considering my options, I decided that I really did not want to sit around in the hot burning sun all day while everyone but me was enjoying themselves.

I really was sick of being that person who had the stick up their butt because of one stupid incident that happened eons ago. I wanted to just take the plunge, figuratively and otherwise. So I did.

I rode the inverted coaster. Then I went on the wooden coaster, and the boomerang, and pretty much every other ride I'd previously deemed "too scary". And you know what? It wasn't that bad. I didn't fall out or get hurt or die. I really enjoyed myself.

Right now, I feel like my life is a Six Flags and I need to get over myself and just jump on the big-kid rides.

I know, I make no sense. *sigh* At least I got an entry out today! Until next time.