Have you ever had the chance to visit an amusement park before? I had never step foot on one before up until my church decided they were going to road trip to Valley Fair. At the time, I was nervous about whether or not I was going to like roller coasters. That was the one thing that bothered me the most. It all sounded fun to me but I didn’t know what it was like to be on a roller coaster so I didn’t know if I’d enjoy it. Finally, I decided I was going to go to an amusement park for the first time in my life!

In order for my church to make it all the way to Valley Fair around the time it opened, we all have to leave at about 4 in the morning. For me, this was just another fun part about the trip, because I never stayed up that late or gotten up that early. I invited my friend Jessica to sleep over and go to Valley Fair with me, so she was over at my house the night before we left. Of course we didn’t go to bed when my mother wanted us to, in fact, we didn’t even go to bed at all. We stayed up watching movies, listening to music, and just being goofy middle schoolers.

When it was finally time to board on the bus I was overcome by excitement. This was finally happening! As I entered the ancient bus, I immediately heard chattering all over the place. Everyone was excited to go to the amusement park and couldn’t stop talking about it. The bus was jam-packed with middle and high school kids. It smelled like a dusty attic, and the seats felts like rough velcro, which didn’t make the trip all that ideal. I found out that some of my other friends decided to come as well when I heard Jessica shout, “Sara and Lilli, come sit by us!” We all had to squish into our seats because there was barely enough room to hold all the kids in the bus. Towards the beginning of the drive we spent our time talking and laughing about silly things, taking various pictures of ourselves, and listening to music loudly and obnoxiously.

As the night began to turn into day, the sun started to glimmer into the old bus. With the sun beaming in all of our faces, the bus started to feel a little toasty. Did I mention there was not air conditioning in the bus? Lucky for me that I was sitting next to all girls so they didn’t stink, but the smell from the boys was comparable to rotten eggs. Maybe not as bad as rotten eggs, but you get the point. On top of that, we voted to stop at McDonald’s for some food. Instead of eating in the restaurant, people wanted to bring the food into the bus. Now the bus smelled like a mixture of a dusty attic, rotten eggs and french fries. It definitely was not a pleasant scent for me to be forced to breath in.

After hours of sitting in a smelly, crowded bus, we had arrived at Valley Fair! As I stepped out of the bus the aroma of fresh-cut grass and funnel cakes crawled up my nose. I could feel excitement in the air. The weather couldn’t have been any more perfect for it, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was mid 70’s. I looked up at the mountains of roller coasters, in all shapes and colors. I analyzed the twists and turns of the metal creations. Sara pointed at a yellow, snake looking roller coaster and said, ”We are going on that one first!” I looked at her with doubt, ”Sara, I’ve never been on a roller coaster before, I don’t want to start on that one.” She refused to reason with me, so I finally gave in.

Sara, Lilli, Jessica and I started walking to our newest adventure. On the way over to the snake like roller coaster called “Steel Venom”, we discovered a collection of different restaurants, shops and even little games along the walk way. Suddenly, the sound of a marching band blared in my ear. As I looked over, I noticed a stage set up and the band doing marches along with the music they were playing. There was also the sounds of arcade games floating into my ear from the other side of where I was walking. We continued walking to the ride, which seemed like miles away since the park was so gigantic.

When we arrived at the ride I couldn’t have been more relieved. The walk itself was exhausting in the humid weather. I also felt more comforted by the fact that there were so many people waiting to go on this ride. There seemed like there were seas of people waiting in line. A lot of people must enjoy it to be waiting this long for it, so I was convinced it must be extraordinary. We waited in line for what seemed like hours, but when we finally got called to go on the ride I was extremely nervous and joyous.

As I positioned myself in the hard, molded seat, it became hard to make myself comfortable. I sat there swinging my feet waiting for the worker to fasten me in. I took in all the sights and sounds from my surrounding area. Couples were shrieking in anticipation, friends were joking with each other about being frightened. The worker made it to me, he pulled a stiff, “U”-looking part of the seat over my head and fastened it to the rest of my chair. Everyone was buckled in when the announcer mumbled something about the ride then ended with, “Have a great ride!” Before I knew it the ride took off, I was jerked forward into the air. The wind came at my like a tornado hit my face! The ride stopped at the top for a moment, but it gave me just enough time to look at the overview of the amusement park. The layout was so detailed, I could even see the old bus in the way back of the parking lot. People seemed like dots to me and the cars looked like toys. Just as I was getting used to the view, the ride dropped us backwards and sent us flying up the other way. The roller coaster continued like this for the remaining time. This was such a thrill for me, I loved every second of it. Everyone was shrieking and screaming of joy so I decided to jump in and scream as well. The ride felt like only a minute and was done way too fast.

Once I had gone on the first ride and figured out I loved roller coasters, there was no stopping me. I went on all the rides I could go on, from the tallest ones to the smaller ones. The rest of the day my friends and I went on every single ride that was up and running that day, including the water rides. We had worn ourselves out by the end of the day, which made the ride home easy. All the kids were sound asleep the whole way home. Going to Valley Fair changed my life in a sense. It made me realize that even though something may look impossible to do, if you don’t try it you won’t ever know. Nevertheless, my first experience at an amusement park was unforgettable and life changing.