Thrills

I waited once, for two hours in line at Six Flags Great Adventure to ride the world's tallest & fastest roller coaster. It's ridiculously scary. As far as thrills go, it was pretty high on the list. I mean bungee jumping is definitely a helluva lot scarier but it's ranked pretty high nonetheless. Was it worth the two hours on line? I guess so. The way the line was set up and snaked around the grounds, my friend and I spent half the time standing right in front of the boarding area. The fun of that was watching people freak out right before the coaster takes off and zooms from 0 to 128mph in 4 seconds flat. Every single person was just screaming at the top of their lungs. I was too when we finally got our own shot on the ride. Right before it takes off you sit there as the operator counts down: "3-2-1 enjoy your ride." You then fly forward at quite literally the fastest you've ever done anything. This isn't Germany; we don't drive cars that fast here. You reach the top of the hill, you're there for a half-a-second and then you start falling, your hair standing up almost completely on end as you feel weightless in your seat. And then you twist and turn a few times and then....just like that it's over. There is so much anticipation, so many moments leading up to that <40 second ride that afterwards, you aren't even quite sure what really happened. We stood in line for two hours for what breaks down to forty seconds of thrills and screams. Looking back, the anticipation probably outweighed the actual ride. The two hours in line freaking out watching everyone else freak out was probably more scary than the actual ride. But I'm not sitting here three years later wondering why I did it. I know why I did it; the same reasons anyone rides a roller coaster, jumps out of an airplane or off a bridge attached with what equates to a giant rubberband attached to their ankles. We do it for the thrill. For the joy. For the rush. For the experience. For the merit. For the bragging rights. And in those instances, it doesn't matter whether or not it's worth it. You do it and it's fun and it's okay when it's over. You expect that from a roller coaster.

You don't expect that same thing from life or from love.