What Riding a Roller Coaster Has Taught Me

When I was young, my friends and I would go to the local amusement park each summer and ride the roller coaster. Damn that roller coaster would scare me, but I was not about to be the first one to say it. I was convinced that each time I would get on it, would be the day that it was going come off the tracks and violently hurl me through the air to my inevitable death. No matter how many times I rode that roller coaster, the same thought would rush through my head. In reality the roller coaster never did breakdown, let alone slam anyone into the ground, but that sure didn’t keep fear from entering my mind.

Now that I am older I still go on roller coasters and in the back of my mind I still believe that today might just be the day that the damn thing finally breaks down. Fortunately for me my past experiences tend to remind me that it just isn’t going to happen.

It’s funny how the life of a parent is like riding a roller coaster. It starts off slowly as you lean back in the seat, looking up at the blue sky above, without a worry in the world. Oh sure, you know that inevitably there are going to be some twists and turns but nothing that you can’t handle. Then reality hits! Before you know it your life is spiraling downward, your stomach drops and you start praying to God to save you. Please God just let me survive this fall and I will make sure that I do it right as a parent. Then just when you get a break from the fall, and before you can catch your breath, the next twist and turn is before you. Your mind races, your heart pounds and you hang on for all you life praying that you will survive. And when you finally are convinced that today is the day that you are going to be hurled off to your death, the ride comes to a sudden stop, and you slowly coast into the safety of the platform.
Except for parenting, there is nothing more exhilarating than riding a roller coaster. Parenting is the one ride in your life that will be filled with so much excitement, so much joy and so many twists and turns that it will make your head spin. The highs will be high, and the lows will be low, but if you believe in yourself, if you enjoy the ride for what it is meant to be, you will survive it. You won’t breakdown, the ride won’t breakdown and inevitably you will gently coast onto the platform of safety.

Enjoy your roller coaster ride everyone because before you know it will be over. You will have the rush of the ride, the joy of survival and stories to share that will last a lifetime.