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Rayhan Nazir

Literacy Narrative Draft

20 June 2018

Roller Coasters: The biggest fear of them all

Roller Coasters, you either love them or you completely despise them. At this point I can

confidently say that I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of excitement while riding a rollercoaster.

That feeling of wind rushing through me at speeds over 120 mph is something that never gets

old. However, there was a point in my life where I was the complete opposite. It was a time

where I felt that roller coasters were the scariest things on the planet. Then I would not even

consider even getting close to even the smallest of coasters. This would all change one fateful

afternoon, July 8th 2014.

It was a beautiful summer day. I was with all my best friends. They were what I would call a

roller coaster fanatics. They would ride every roller coaster that he could lay his eyes on. No

matter how dangerous it was it would not stop them from being the first one in line. This

eventually lead them to convince me that I should come with him to Kings Island with him. I

had been to Kings Island before with my family. My parents however shared the same fear I did

with rollercoasters. In fact it was probably my mom who lead me to gain this fear that I had. She

was convinced that any roller coaster was dangerous anyone who rode them. She would describe

them as deadly machines that would kill even the strongest men in the world. That however was
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when I was 5. Now I was 10 years old and I was in Kings Island without my mom so there was

no person pulling me back from riding any ride.

The day started off with us just playing lots of mini games. We loved to compete with each

other, whether it was trying to throw plastic balls into a plethora of bottles or climbing that

twisting rope ladder. We were at an age where we felt there was actually a chance in beating one

of these games. At this point I was having a blast, playing all these games was what I felt the best

tim anyone could have at Kings Island. My friends however felt otherwise.

“ Hey you guys want to start riding some actual rides” Will exclaimed in boredom.

“Sure, I heard they added a new ride, something like the Banshee” Evan remembered.

As soon as I heard him say that I quivered. The banshee was King Island’s newest ride, and of

course it was a roller coaster. It featured the most turns, loops, and even an intense corkscrew

that was known to make people dizzy. “Hey how about we not?” I quickly responded.

“Oh don’t be a wuss, it's not even that bad, Plus you don’t have a choice its 2 to 1” Will coaxed.

We had a rule where if we as a group of friends had a majority of us wanting to do something

everyone else had to comply. Since it was 2 to 1 I had no choice but to tag along with them. At

this point I was fearing for my life. I did not know if I was going to be alive by the end of that
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day. We eventually got in line and waited for a whole 2 hours to ride this thing. You can imagine

how stressful it was to wait 2 hours to what I thought was impending doom. During this time my

friends did what they could to convince me that I was going to be alright.

“ Look, I heard that this ride is not even that intense, many people are saying that this ride is

pretty slow compared to the others” Evan reassured

“Yeah doesn’t change the fact that I am still going to die” I respond back

“Hey worst thing that could happen is that you die and I get to take your xbox” Will joked.

“You know if I do make it out Will I will make sure the only thing you is a punch in the face” I

fired back.

“Chill it was a joke, you will be fine.” Will said still laughing at my response.

Finally we got to the end of the line. We all stood in the same row so we could all sit next to each

other. I stood in the middle because I wanted to make sure that I would be the last one out of all

3 of us to fly out of the coaster. After waiting a few minutes it finally arrived. This was it. We all

sat down in our compartment. We quickly put on our seatbelts and lowered the metal bar over us.

This to me felt like the seal of my fate. I turned to Will who has a huge smile on his face.
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“If I die on this thing, I will kill you”

Before he could respond to how dumb that statement was the coaster took off. We were now

going up the first hill. The entire time I was closing my eyes and gripping that bar as hard as I

could. Eventually we got to the top of the hill and the coaster stopped. At this point I thought that

the coaster somehow broke down. That God had saved me from this impending doom. I open my

eyes and exclaimed “Oh Thank go…”

WHOOOOSH!

If felt as if the track had snapped. We quickly plummeted towards the ground. The wind was

rushing into me. I could not even comprehend what was happening anymore. The coaster

continued to fly through loop after loop and I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was ready

for us to just fly off one of these loops and crash into the ground. I look around and see my

friends waving their hands in the air as if they thought they were some sort of daredevils.

Meanwhile I was still gripping onto the bar, not ceasing my never ending scream.

CLUNK!

The ride came to an abrupt stop. When I finally came to my senses I realized that we were right

back where we started and more importantly, I was alive. I stepped off the ride, I was dizzy,

weary, stumbled. My friends looked at me trying to get my reaction. I look up to them dead in

their eyes.

“Can we do that again?”.

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