Thursday, June 16, 2016

The Epic McVentures of Fuck (Cray) Mountain

My life is a giant quest. The ultimate goal of my adventures is to become more confident in myself, believe in my positive attributes as a person, and maintain positive relationships with the people I decide to keep close to me.

I've always been a roller coaster enthusiast for as long as I could remember. Even my bat mitzvah theme was Six Flags and Amusement Parks. A year ago, I had went to Cedar Point to prove to myself I needed to end my relationship with Voldemort the jerk bag boyfriend at the time, not knowing the next time I'd end up back there again. I was able to live my childhood dream, but that's about the only gratification I was able to feel, besides letting go of toxicity. Less than a year later, my second chance to live my childhood dream plopped into my lap.

On June 6, me, my two roommate friends, and a friend I met while playing Dance Dance Revolution in an arcade, embarked on an adventure to ride the largest of roller coasters in the US and get out of town for a bit. Ironically enough, I met this lovely friend of mine at the arcade on an occasion when I got Voldemort so mad at me to where I left his apartment at 3:30am to drive home. Needless to say, I made the correct decision on who to keep in my life!

Prior to this adventure, my friend who I met while playing Dance Dance Revolution was afraid of roller coasters. We were supposed to go to Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio with record-breaking roller coasters, on the Monday. The park ended up closing due to weather issues and power outages; we ended up hitting the Six Flags in the Chicago suburbs instead. The park was an hour away from my apartment. We arrive at the park to do our “warm up rides” aka the not super scary rides. We hit the Demon looping coaster and the “more tame wooden coaster”, the Viper first and he went on those rides without a problem. We ended up heading over to the bigger wooden coaster, the "American Eagle", and he chickened out and didn’t go on the ride. The 4 of us end up hitting the a number of the bigger rides at the park, all of which my friend still chickened out for. I was getting worried my poor friend wouldn't go on any rides and possibly kick himself for it later. We wanted to leave the park early in order to make our lengthy drive drive to Ohio and not get there at 3am, but I opted for “1 more ride”. On this ride, known as "Batman", your feet dangle and you’re suspended under the track. I knew he disliked coasters where your feet dangle, but he shockingly went on the ride and thought it wasn’t that bad. By the time we reached Cedar Point, one by one, he was going on all of the rides. By the end of the first of two Cedar Point days, he succeeded at riding the fastest and tallest full roller coaster in the park. By the end of the second day, he succeeded at going from chickening out on a 175 foot drop wooden roller coaster to challenging a ride with a 420 foot almost straight down drop without crying, puking, or peeing himself. I was encouraging him the entire time and even prior to our adventures and was blown away he went on every single major ride at Cedar Point. He attributed his fear conquering to my upliftingness. I’ve always wanted to make a difference in people’s lives; whether it’s on a larger scale or on a smaller scale to a dear friend, I’m happy to be able to change people’s lives and watch them grow!