Roller Coastin'

This is a picture my mom took a couple of weeks ago at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. It was my birthday so I invited my cousins to Six Flags to hang out, have some fun, and enjoy the day. I have to admit, heading to this day, I was a bit uneasy since I had not been on a roller coaster in 2 years, so I completely lost the memory of how riding a roller coaster felt like. Once we got to the park, we were debating on which ride to go on first: Medusa, arguably the best ride in the park, or a “pre-ride” ride that is not as thrilling but perfect for easing the transition to more thrilling, scarier rides.

Alas, we finally decided to go on an “easy” ride since this would be my youngest sister’s first time riding on a roller coaster. Essentially, the first ride that we rode did not travel on a track like other coasters; instead it made loops so you are basically going upside down, again and again, for 1 minute. It’s funny how our whole group decided we should ride an easy ride to start the day, yet at the end of the day, that first ride was probably the most physically challenging. In other roller coasters, the speed of the coaster turns the experience into a blur filled with non-stop screaming, whereas this coaster would make the loops slow so as to be suspended upside down for at least 3 seconds without moving before finally finishing the loop and repeating itself again. During this ride, I felt blood rushing into my head, nausea building up from the McDonalds breakfast and overall a not-so-good feeling. The ride was scary at first, but then after a while, it got boring and that’s when I was thinking to myself “This needs to end ASAP!”

In this particular picture, our faces capture the emotions heading into the roller coaster. In our faces, especially my face, you can see that there is a sense of anxiousness before riding, and rightfully so. I think what caused me to be anxious is the fact that I hate feeling trapped, but not to the point where I am claustrophobic. It had been a while since I was in a harness so all I was thinking about at the time of the picture was how tight the harness was going to be.

Everyone has different emotions heading into a ride, and in this picture, my cousin’s facial expression is more of eagerness and anxiousness rather than nervousness. Beside me is my younger brother who you could barely see, and the girl to his right is my cousin’s girl-friend who he decided to bring. To the very left of the picture is the first row where my cousin (pictured), other cousin, and my youngest sister were seated. Here, you can see my other cousin reaching for the harness, but little did he know that it would be at least another minute before the harnesses would lock into place, so you could say that his eagerness is showing in this picture. Another aspect of this picture is that if you look at the rest of the seats, they are empty. Two reasons can account for that fact: 1; the park just opened, and 2; nobody wanted to ride an old ride.

What I liked about this photo was that it was spontaneous and not contrived. Spontaneous photos truly capture the essence of the moment, the emotions of the people involve, and provide a visual to a story that can be told later on in life. As I get older, hopefully I will be able to one day show this picture and tell a story about my birthday at an amusement park.