Jenna (Honolulu): “My Natural High”
Jenna, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
“Are you sure this is safe?” I murmured to no one in particular for the third time in the last 45 seconds. I glimpsed around uncertainly at my surroundings. It was eight o’ clock in the morning. The summer heat was beginning its mission to establish a coat of sticky sweat on our backs, pestering us into buying over-priced popsicles; but the crisp air was combating successfully with its chilly, breezy winds blowing about. I was gasping in utter awe and fear at a huge, jagged, rocky peak sitting atop a titanic mountain with water rapids encircling it. The peak was in the shape of a grizzly bear; the mist from rushing gushing waters surrounding the air everywhere. Damp clung to my skin like sticky trap; featuring myself as the bug.
“You’ve going to love this, Jenna. You won’t regret it. Aren’t you excited? I love going on amusement park rides!” my best friend Alex spit out, her words blasted at me with her machine gun of a mouth; a huge smile plastered on her face as we stood in line for the ride. Even my mother was animatedly excited for the first ride of the day in the Disney Theme Park. From this horrifying moment on, I knew that even though my gut was obviously instructing me to immediately get out of the line and scamper away quickly in the opposite direction of gut-wrenching-human-killer-of-a-raft-ride; I knew I was going on that raft ride and there was nothing I could do about it. Unless… Unless I didn’t meet the safety requirements to go on the ride! My eyes quickly scanned the perimeters for the bright neon sign containing what I hoped would be my salvation. I wanted out this mess and I wanted out now. Unfortunately, I didn’t weigh more than 300 pounds, I wasn’t pregnant, and I was taller than 4′6″… That was when my brain officially gave up on coming up with frivolous reasons as to not go on this ride.
“Yeah, Alex, I guess it’ll be fun.” I muttered with a sigh. Why do Americans love amusement park rides that go at speeds and heights so unnatural? We love them so much that we made Disney the successful man he was. What is so great about people dropping from great heights? Spinning upside down? Being thrust up into the air 100 feet and feeling like barfing your brains out? Our culture is so obscure. What is so great about this? Why am I doing this? As I was thinking these bleak thoughts, the sun was just kicking off its long trek across the aqua blue tint of a sky, by peaking out from a cloud. How ironic, aqua blue. But in comparison to my pessimistic thoughts, everything seemed to be reassuring me; Alex and my mother, the sky, the somewhat soothing sound of man-made water rapids gushing about. “Everything was going to be alright. Just Relax,” I thought to myself. And I did.
As a rule, I absolutely did not move when people asked me to go on amusement park rides with them. I was like a solid rock set into the earth, something no man could budge. But somehow, man had figured out how to use machines to move the rock, making the solid rock unstable. This was the driving line that my best friend that drove home. “You’ll regret this if you don’t go.” So, against my mind, logic and reasoning that I am doing this crazy, out-of-my-mind act…
“GRRRRING” the sound of motors working in a fluid motion, round and round, again, as our raft flew to the top of the track, I was immediately thrust into reality and I was going to die from the shock. In just glancing this steep incline my limited experience had already told me that I was going to have to drop, and far. I looked down again, the equivalent to pinching myself to make sure it was real. Oh my God. From that breakneck height, I would have to fly down at the speed of sound. Time for some Hail Mary’s and Our Fathers, a final prayer before I head to heaven, or hell. I squeezed my eyes shut and gave the handlebars on the raft a death grip, holding on for dear life. How could I let my mother and best friend persuade me to go on a raft ride, in the early morning! I must be out of my senses! And there were screams that could be heard from just about anywhere in the park coming from that ride. Oh boy. The raft was turning, sloshing around in the roaring waters. It wasn’t that bad. It was actually quite fun. I relaxed my shoulders and loosened my grip. I smiled. Everyone in the raft was gleeful too. This was really enjoyable.
“Now, Jenna, this isn’t bad, eh?” my mother said. This was the closest she got to gloat with an “I told you so”, before…
SPLASH. I guess it isn’t bad. My smile had turned into a thin line with a furrowed brow. I have just gotten my whole shirt-sopping wet from a wall of water crashing into the raft, soaking the rest of its occupants, and flooding the bottom with water, which was looking like a wading pool. On top of my fear, I was freezing cold, and the windy morning was not helping. I would have laughed at my mother whose face was stony silent. But an urgent issue occupied my mind. There was a big drop coming up. The big finish, KABOOM; that was going to finish me too, as far as I was concerned. I looked ahead and saw the water at the bottom, gushing around, seemingly evilly frolicking, and beckoning us closer to get us wet. No! I couldn’t grasp the idea of accepting my doomed fate. I wanted to turn the raft around desperately and back into the direction it came from. Too late now, gravity had taken its toll.
“OHHHHH SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!” I screamed, summoning up my special 5 year old tantrum voice. I could hear my mother and my best friend yelling and screaming their lungs off too. My mother’s scream was exactly the one that she gave me when I snuck up behind her and said, “BOO!” which was always followed by some major stink-eye. Alex’s scream sounded like mine, except she still had the sense not to swear in front of my mother.
For those few seconds I was falling, it felt as though my body was suspended in midair, time was in slow motion. This was a great feeling; release, relax, enjoy. Screaming just made the sense of complete freedom complete. And then we crashed into the water, spraying everywhere. The moment was over. Everyone was soaking wet, but I was ecstatic from that. Now I knew why Americans loved amusement park rides so much. It was the natural high, the adrenaline you got from it.
“Can I go again?”
