Quarter 2 Benchmark (Memoir Vignette)

Roger Bracy                                                                                                            1/7/11

The Ride of My Life

            Forty-two stories of solid medal of stood in my way, and I wasn’t backing down from a challenge. (Interesting opener) That day at six flags changed my life; (Foreshadow) and the sign had stated “Kingda Ka”(dialogue) was my death ticket.

       I was wondering why my friend had chosen this route to the other side of the park seeing that it had no outlet filled me with curiosity. Then I looked up, there stood the tallest coaster in the World, they called it “Kingda Ka.” Standing there trying to scare us on to this monstrosity was my friend Frank. Even though Frank is a loyal friend he has a way to trick you into doing things, such as, making you say stupid things, practical jokes, or things like getting on a scary ride.(magic three) As my sister and my cousin shied away from the ride I felt a little sorry for him seeing that it was the only ride that he enjoyed the most, and I gave in.

            Walking through the maze of the line (metaphor) I questioned myself by saying, “Am I really going to risk my life over a friend.” Next I noticed that we were moving through this line really quickly was there absence of people. This had to be a mistake because this was the most popular ride in the park. We continued on to find that the ride had stopped temporally; this was my chance to leave. Having second thoughts about a ride made this experience even worse and frank wasn’t having it. Watching the ride load up, go up, and come down (magic 3) the ride got more and more intense.

            The line finally caught up to us at the bridge, an area where the coaster was very clear. The train slowly would pull out onto a long track, STOP; shift back an inch and “CLICK” (onomatopoeia). Speakers shouting phrases of “don’t do it!” and “there’s no turning back now!” (Dialogue) The riders are consumed by terror as if they where a little kid waiting for a monster to jump out of a closet. (Simile) Like a rubber band, the coaster was ready to be released (simile) and the riders flung out at speeds of 85mph to climb the 42 stories which is known to be Kingda Ka.

As we approached the front of the line I was overwhelmed by fear buy some of the sights I was witnessing. There were foreigners, who had thick accents, they where very excited and had traveled all the way across the world to ride this giant piece of metal. Then religion started to show as I found people praying before the ride the left, right, up, and down hand motion of the cross gave some the strength to go on. Noticing that the line was beginning to congest, it was because of the exiting area, many people where exiting I guess felt a little like me.

Frank and I were next in line so kind wanted to get rid of my fear so I decided to ask people in the line some questions. I found a kid who was about my age and was very excited to go on, “what the hardest part of this ride?” I asked, (Dialogue) He answered going up this gave me the idea that if I can make it through to the top the rest would be pretty easy. Next Frank and started to count how long it takes to reach the top, it took about 14 seconds.

We were next; we hopped into our seats and waited for instructions. The worker told us to strap the harness as far as it could go down on our bodies. At this moment in time I was regretting that I had ever made fun of a fat person because they were the only people who could be held down properly on this ride as I was skinny and could shift all around the car. As we left the loading station the car slowly move us forward we stop the speakers were all around us shouting “No, No don’t do it!” and then all of the ride shot out like a cannon and we coasted our way up to the top. The ride became slower as everyone could now see that we hung over the parking lot and the view of black and white confronted us as we dropped down. It felt like an elephant was dancing on my stomach as we when down as it caved in. when it was over I was full of relief ans gave Frank a high five.

The ride ended, and I felt on top of the world and I thanked Frank for taking me on Kingda Ka. I figured that the only thing that held me back was the fact that I saw a challenge and I shy away and let my fear guide my mind. I never backed down and found that I would get through this nightmare.