Roller Coaster Ride Research Paper

The Ride of My Life
I've always loved roller coasters. Or, at least I thought I did. The feeling of soaring through the air, warm wind blasting on your face and blowing through your hair, that "oh crap" moment that your body gets when you're plummeting downwards, and the adrenaline that surges through your body while you're watching the world flip and twist before your eyes in mind boggling ways are all insane.
My legs were aching from standing upright for such a prolonged period of time. I was lazily leaning against a cold, metal gate. Old, cherry red paint had chipped off from wear and tear over time and the rusty metal was overpowering the remaining chips. Closing my eyes, I listened to the buzz of conversations being warped into one
big jumble of words, when finally my group was filed into three rows of two onto the yellow platform.
We slowly watched an orange cart pull up to our section and with a loud screech of metal, it stopped with a jolt. Filing onto the machine, we plopped down onto the large yellow seats that were still warm from the passengers before us. I hauled a large, heavy metal belt onto the other side of my body and heard a loud clank of metal clashing on metal. The belt sat snugly on my hips, with cold metal barely skimming my stomach. Two employees dressed in black and orange did a routine check to make sure that our belts were secured tightly, pushing slightly on them. I felt the metal click once more and my belt went from being comfortable to pinching my skin and squeezing my stomach, that hardly gave me room to breathe. I let out a short, annoyed sigh and glared at the small screen in front of my eyes. Scrolling through
the abundance of horribly outdated songs, I settled for Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys. Our cart jolted and moved forward, and a loud computerized voice came on in our speakers and said in an overly cheery voice "Good luck riders, don't forget to rock out on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rock-it and don't fall off!" I gripped my constricting belt, deeply inhaled, and we began our journey up a 90 degree angle of railing.
Our backs were facing the platform and we were headed straight up into the sky; I squeezed my eyes shut and repeated over and over "Don't puke, don't puke, dear god Chloe do not puke.". The distinct murmur of the anxious crowd faded and I quickly opened my eyes and observed the red rings of bright, flashing lights that we were passing. Inhaling deeply, realized that we were almost 200 feet off the ground, and the large swarms of tourists now looked like ants. We reached the peak and I gasped at what we were about to plummet down. The belt resisted against my weight and that's when I felt something click; I frantically looked down at my belt and realized that it was now 6 inches away of my body. "No no no this can't be happening!" I screamed out loud, I turned to my sister next to me and started to yell in attempt to get her attention as we started to pummel down the rails, but my screams couldn't be heard because of the loud music on our chair speakers. The wind blew fiercely in my face and my body dropped with the movement of the roller coaster. I instinctively wrapped both of my arms around the loose metal belt and tucked my head into my chest as we started to shoot upwards into a twisting loop. The gravity started to rip me from my seat and I was lifted off of it and felt a sharp, sudden pain in my stomach of falling onto the dull metal belt. "Amanda! Amanda! Someone help!" I screamed over and over. Black started to trickle into my eyes and cloud vision; my body had gone into fight or flight mode.
We started to speed upwards and suddenly stopped on top of a platform, where I almost flew upwards and out of my seat.
That's when I clawed at Amanda's arm and screamed "I'M FALLING, LOOK AT THE BELT." She looked down in horror and grabbed as much of me as she could hold to keep me from being flung out of my seat. After three more drops and turns, we were back on the loading platforms. I sat in my seat staring straight ahead, trying to recollect and analyze the events that had just happened. "How was it?" an overly cheerful voice of an employee had interrupted my thoughts. I turned my head towards him with my eyes bulging out of my skull and a look of concern was quickly cast over his face. "Are you okay?.... Miss, are you okay? You're all white!" He said in a worried voice. I responded and spoke in a hushed voice "I.. I almost fell out. The belt loosened when we went down.." I trailed off and he hurried me into a room with the people operating the
ride.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened? Did you lose anything? Would you like to go to the infirmary?" Questions were all being asked at once and I just looked the people straight in the face and said "I'm fine, I'm just a bit shaken up.." The manager took me down to the photo station, because each row records peoples reactions; in this case, my belt. The people working the station pulled up the picture and video and if you watched closely, you can see the belt unbuckle and my struggle to hold on. The picture, however, was definitely laugh worthy. My face was priceless and it looked like I was just scared of roller coasters, not like I was falling off of the racing ride. "Is there anything we can do to accommodate you ma'am? Any other rides you want to go on?", I looked at the man with a questioning expression on my face "I think I've had my fair share of roller coasters for this year..." I said in an awkward tone of voice. At the end of this experience, I’ve learned to appreciate things and not take certain items for granted and even a simple rollercoaster can put your life into major danger.