I traveled to Cedar Point for the first time ever in 2015, it’s the ‘Roller coaster capital of the world’ for a reason. It was my first time at cedar point, I was convinced that I would ride all of the major thrill roller coasters. I wanted to make sure that I took advantage of the time that I had and rode every single thrill coaster in the park. I just hoped the rides didn’t kill me first.

I often thought that it would be easy to ride all the coasters, and that if I cleared my mind and didn’t get ahead of myself I will be okay, I don't care what happens on the ride. I rode the Millennium Force, the Maverick, and the Gatekeeper by trying to show no emotion.

“That ride was nothing, I can handle anything,” I announced repeatedly to my sister.
“But why were you screaming?” My sister replied.
“Umm... it’s a natural reflex to exert noise when excited,” I say to try to prove my point. I would always try to weave my way out of the conversation by giving a smart aleck answer, but there was one point where I couldn’t escape.
“So, are you ready to ride the Dragster?” My sister asked.
“Not yet, I think my lunch should digest,” I countered with.
“But we should hurry, it may close”
“It will not close, it’s the middle of the day”
“Well, I am going to wait in line”
“Wait, why?” I questioned.

“It is a long wait,” she exclaimed with confidence. I started to wonder if the coaster could actually break down, I was wishing for some luck, I mean roller coasters break down all the time. We got in line, unfortunately, we had fast passes, which allowed us to cut the wait time in half. But suddenly a miracle happened, the ride closed for short maintenance, sending us out of line for a half hour. I was thinking that I may actually bypass the system and not have to ride the Dragster.

“Bummer, we won’t be able to ride today”, I uttered, acting like I was disappointed
“Oh, it will open again, and we will ride it”, she countered with,
“Yay...” I weeped in a sarcastic tone. In my mind, I was thinking of ways that I can weasel my way out of this, I’ve been acting like I was about to throw up the whole day, but that can only last for so long.

We were walking around the park for about a half hour, and I was thinking that I was getting lucky, until we walked by the Dragster again; it was in full swing, roller coaster enthusiasts and everything in motion, I had to think fast.

“I’m not feeling so good”, I mentioned.
“Just ride, if you throw up, you throw up”, my sister exclaimed.
“But, I don’t want to throw up”, I replied.
“Grow a pair, and ride the damn roller coaster”, my sister commanded.

“Fine,  I will”, I replied in a panicked voice as if my life depended on it. I was thinking about ways to get out of this, how can I avoid the Dragster? But the line was slowly approaching zero, and I was running out of time.

Then it was too late, I was in the line for the 4th car; as we were boarding. I got strapped in as tight as I could, and wanted to hold on for dear life. Then, I realized that I am insanely scared, it had never occurred to me before that I can be scared of things like roller coasters. I was wondering why I was always shaking when I see them, they were scaring me. I knew there was nothing I could do, I would be a wimp to chicken out at this point, so I manned up, and embraced the moment.

The tension that was being built up to the moment of being launched was really mean, I think I may even pee my pants before the ride starts. It was only 10 seconds, but it felt like 20 minutes, I felt like I was going to die. Then, WHOOSH, we were off and I was screaming like I was getting my limbs torn off, and I was thinking that I will probably die from this. Then, 13 seconds later, the ride was over, I was in relief and the jitters were out. From that point on, I made sure that there was no more panicking, I had overcome that. Now, I changed my life so that I can ride any roller coaster, I promised myself, not to be scared or try to run away from anything that fears me again.