By Ben Bian

The roller coaster loomed menacingly over our heads, the twisted conglomeration of metal and wood leering at us as we walked closer and closer. I felt a violent thumping in my stomach; roller coasters are the bane of my existence. For every inch that we moved closer to this monster of steel, my heart rate spiked 5 bpm. Nothing in the world could convince me to go near this behemoth. Absolutely nothing. But alas, the jeers of my friends lingered in my ears, and at that moment I decided: my ego had had enough. Even the endless torture from my peers was enough to convince me to ride that roller coaster. Definitely, I strutted up the lazily constricted stairs, my heart thumping like a timpani. It seemed like an entire new era before I reached the top, and at that point, my head felt as if it wanted to join a SpaceX program. The wind hollowed relentlessly, and my legs seemed to dissolve as I looked down the unconquerable 5 feet that I had summited. The catcalls and laughter snapped me back to reality, and I continued my climb. Finally, after a few fits of hyperventilation, I reached the roller coaster cars. The crude cart leered as I approached and the gates laughed as they swung open. Without batting an eye, the clerk took my ticket from my shaky hand and indicated with his eyes where to sit. I quickly lowered myself into the cart with shut eyes, but then the morbid music of cranking gears forced me to behold my fate. The cart hoisted itself up in a jerky motion, and after a few minutes, the cart hissed to a stop. A fresh gale of wind nearly blasted me out of my seat, and a Crested CaraCara observed my face of terror and anguish as it soared by. After a few moments, I felt a little more accommodated to the height, and that is exactly when the cart seemed to disappear. With a mechanical screech I was slingshot directly toward the Earth, the entire world a great blur. Vaguely I could hear the laughter of my friends, and I silently cursed them under my breath, all while trying to keep the contents of my stomach intact of course. The Roller coaster snapped right, left, the smell of air slicing my nostrils only added to the trauma. The roller coaster flew upward and stopped again. At this point, I felt like a shell of a human, with the only thing keeping me on the Earth were the sticky, gritty bars strapped over my shoulders. “Is it over?” I asked myself. Ironically, at that point, the cart began going backwards. Up, down, sideways, through a tunnel, this roller coaster seemed like it wanted to finish me off. The world transformed into a kaleidoscope of color and the noise throughout the park turned into a hymn of pain.   Finally, the roller coaster sped to a stop, and I clusimily climbed out of the cart. “How was it?” asked my friends. With a slight groan, I promptly collapsed on a park bench and the world went black.