A visit to an amusement park stirs old memories and provokes an epiphany of change and liberation.
The first time I went to a theme park, I must have been around nine years old. I enjoyed learning about the history of the theme park, more than the rides. The rides made me dizzy and left me feeling nauseous, and my nine-year-old self was too mature for slow shell rides and floating cars.
Almost two decades later, with a 12-year-old younger sister in tow, I was ready to meet the theme park again. My younger sister had exhausted all the other adults through daily activities in the holidays and it came to my turn to take her out.
My adult self thought I would sit on the bench or queue for her and her friends. Not once did I think I would get on the rides, the rides in mind being the kiddies shells and floating cars.
It was a lovely sunny day and the theme park was packed with people of all ages, mostly teenagers. In the car my younger sister had begged me to go on the rides with them, I declined and told them I had been there, done that. My job was to make sure they were safe and fed lunch.
The queues for tickets were surprisingly going fast. I got to the window and asked if people who weren’t riding had to pay the same amount as those that were, and to my surprise I learnt that I had to pay despite not planning to go on the rides. That’s when a fire rose up in me. If I was going to pay as much as the riders, I might as well ride, I told myself.
I took the tickets and distributed them to my sister and her friends, I told her I was going to ride. She was more excited than before. She told me we had to go on a ride I had told myself I would never get on. When I was nine I was not allowed on it because I was too short, but we watched the older children get on and come out crying.
The ride went deep down into a hole and came out the other side. I was petrified then and still was now. My legs were shaking as we went up to queue. We saw the ride filled with happy people slowly go up the track, and then suddenly the train was released into the deep dark hole. The darkness swallowed them along with their screams.
My heart beat fast. I looked behind me and more people were joining the queue. I was caught up in my fear. I found myself in a seat, as the attendant man made sure that I was secured. The fastener seemed very loose to me but his smile assured me it was perfect.
Slowly, with a creaking sound, the ride went up, and a few seconds later we dropped, we screamed in the darkness and suddenly the light reappeared. I laughed with tears coming out my eyes, I laughed at how contrived I had become and how much fun I had missed out on in my life, I laughed at how it was over so quick, at how alive I felt and how I wanted to do it all over again.
My sister and her friends got out at a speed and ran to queue at another ride. I got out slowly, my legs felt like jelly and I laughed again. I would catch up with them just like how my youth caught up with me. That day I learnt that I have to let go and enjoy the ride that is life.
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