By Joyce Liang

When I was 12 years old on a trip, I went to an amusement park in San Antonio, Texas with my friends. It was called Six Flags. It was my first time there. I saw millions of rides made of steel rods and a bunch of people. I heard children yelling and felt the excitement coming from families. I had never ridden a roller coaster in my life. My friends were rollercoaster lovers, but I had a fear of heights.

When we got into the park, my friends started squealing. They were fascinated by what they saw. The first ride that caught their attention was Batman. The Batman was a loop roller coaster shaped like the Batman logo. I was startled and speechless at the fact that my friends liked those types of roller coasters. Despite my friends knowing about my fear of heights, they were going to beg me onto the roller coaster.

After 10 long minutes of “Please come with us on the ride,” I agreed to go on the scary, extreme Batman roller coaster. I couldn’t believe I had agreed to do it, but I knew that it could test my fears. At the same time, I wanted to enjoy my time and make the best of this memory.

As I got on the rollercoaster, I had an anxiety attack. I was shaking as if I was having a seizure. Then I thought to myself, “if nothing is overcome in life, then life is useless.”

The ride started; everyone on the ride was nervous as we moved toward the first hill of the ride. As we dropped down, I could hear people yelling so loud that I felt as though my eardrums were about to explode. As we went through the curvy loops, I could feel sickness coming to me. I was about to puke, and I also was having massive headaches. I was happy that I rode through all the loops, but the biggest fear was coming at me. The highest point of the roller coaster was more than 50 feet high. My heart sunk as thoughts in my mind were twirling around. At that point, I thought back to when I had told myself that I could defy my fear. I imagined myself after the drop unresponsive. I had faith in myself that I could overcome this fear.

Finally, the roller coaster dropped, and I felt as if I were free-falling and defying gravity. The breeze of the wind made me think I was flying. In a blink of an eye the ride ended.

After the ride, I sighed and was grateful to be alive. I congratulated myself because I had made it through the ride. I overcame an obstacle that prevented me from doing fun, extreme activities. My friends were so happy for me and said, “Let’s go on another one!”