#13: Ride a roller coaster.

...and try not to puke.

#13: Ride a roller coaster.

The backstory: When I was a little kid, I LOVED kiddie coasters. When I would go to the Ocean City boardwalk, I would stay on the caterpillar coaster and just let my mom keep handing the carny tickets to ride. When I was nine years old, that all changed.

I should clarify; one time, I DID ride a roller coaster at Hersheypark. It was a small one though. It would be a stretch to call it a roller coaster in fact. It's called the Wild Mouse, and it's this small fast coaster where you sit inside a mouse-shaped carriage that zips back and forth around curves and up and down humps. I was a nine-year-old skinny minnow who was barely protected by the safety bar. Consequently, I almost flew off the ride several times. This experience traumatized me and I was forever terrified of the prospect of roller coasters.

When I made the list, I realized I would eventually have to face this fear again. Whether chaperoning one of my little cousins on Rockin' Roller Coaster or taking a ride with a future fling, someday the need to courageously hop on a fast flying death machine would rear its ugly caboose.

That brings us to May of 2011 when my school's junior class (my friends and I) took our annual field trip. This year, it was destination: Williamsburg. We hopped on a Greyhound bus and trekked into the wilderness of suburban Virginia. On the last full day of our trip, we hiked over to Busch Gardens for a whole day of amusement park fun, despite the absolutely scorching heat.

Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of the rides my friends wanted to go on were roller coasters. I was the bag-holder for them as they would get on the rides, get off and run right back into the queue. We did some other things there that were fun, but most of the morning was spent on coasters. By lunchtime, I was bored, overheated and irritated. I realized I would have to face my fears if I wanted to leave with positive memories of the day.

Since I would be riding a coaster for the very first time, I absolutely refused to try one which did loops and corkscrews (essentially, I despised anything that turned riders upside down). There was only one coaster that did not fall into that category: Apollo's Chariot.

Of course, my friends wanted to ride Apollo's Chariot too, so we all trudged over to the opposite end of the park to get on. Our group was too big so we had to split into two cars; I was in the later (second) car. The first car left, and just as they were about to exit the ride, the attendant got on the speaker and announced it was shut down for maintenance. D'OH!

I was really agitated then because I knew it was really my only option to ride a roller coaster that day. We decided to go ride other things and come back later. Sure enough, we came back and it was open again.

I waited until I was on the ride to tell everyone it was my first roller coaster experience. By the time I told them, we were halfway up the GIGANTIC first hill and they told me I might have gone in a little over my head for a first ride. TOO LATE! We reached the top, the car slowed and suddenly VOOM!

Down the hill, up another, down that hill, through a shed, around a curve, around another curve, up a hill, down again, up, down, up, down, updownupdownupdownupdownuienramvobaioscreamingeifusdiufnasief...

Next thing I knew, I was back where I started. Now that wasn't bad at all, was it? Well, I managed to hold in my lunch at least. I actually had so much fun that I ran around and got back in line a second time. After that, however, I felt a little queasy and figured it was better not to push my luck since my digestive system isn't that stable as it is.

Looking at the coaster from afar, it seemed a lot scarier than it actually was. The initial ascent was really nerve-racking but once I reached the bottom of the first hill I loved the rest of the ride. So for all those kids out there like me who are scared of roller coasters, give one a whirl. You might be surprised how freeing it feels. Although try not to eat beforehand.

And I'm still not going on any that flip me upside-down. No siree, Apollo.

P.S. I know I said I would try posting every day for the month of July but I didn't realize how busy I'd be. I'll still churn posts out every few days though, so stay posted!