#19: Amusement Parks, Fun, and Friends

Write you own essay question and answer it. (Kalamazoo College/93)


Of everything in the world what would you like to be doing today? Where would you like to be the most? Who would you prefer to be with for this day? 
(I just changed a few words in question 106 to fit it with my blog post) 

There is water everywhere. In fact, I'm drenched in water, and my sticker-type ticket is faded and tearing. The ride slowly comes to a halt, and I push off against the metal bar that was just, a few moments ago, pressing me against the back of my seat. Holding my stomach, I turn to see my friends in the same sad-looking state as me, and my laughs get louder. We make our way to a bench on the side of the cement path that lead to many other rides, spread out all over the park, each scarier than the other. The metal bench has absorbed heat from the sun high above our heads right now and feels hot through our wet clothes. We've been at the amusement park since it opened up on today, and it is noon now. 'I'll always remember this day', I think, as I see my two best friends trying to wring the water out of their clothes.

They're different right now. I am different right now. Very different from what we always are, burdened with school work and all the problems that seem to take so long to solve. It's like we're free from the real world, even though this feeling of freedom is most probably temporary. We've forgotten about everything, or rather, squeezed it out of ourselves for this special day, just like the water that drips off of us, leaving a trail of dark grey blotches on an otherwise clean, almost white ground. We go eat something, anything, because our stomachs feel empty right now, or at least, mine do. Lunch is followed by a "siesta", or a time when all we do is sit, lie down, and just talk. Amusement parks have always been one of my favorite places, so I doubt that our rest time is my idea. I'm guessing it's their (my best friends) idea. One of my best friends is always sick with motion sickness during long drives, and I think it's probably a good idea, right about now. These rides are most probably going to be harder on her stomach than the long drives. My day can’t fit a dirty, vomit-smelling me or my other best friend.

 Almost an hour passes, and we've finally decided to get rid of the lethargic feeling in our bones. Walking towards all the rides we haven't gone on, I realize that we haven't taken any pictures yet. We stop at the gates in front of the ride and I take out my camera, which my friends find funny and ironic, since I dislike having people take pictures of me. I see the irony in it myself, but today is a special occasion. It is not a special occasion that needs to be recorded, just in case I forget this day in the future, but an occasion that is captured for just one second. This picture, I hope, will capture the happiness in the smiles we'll have on our faces. It'll be one perfect moment, which I hope there will be many of in the future. It might even be one of very few, but this rarity will make this day just the more special.

 The ride is about to start, and we hurry to get ourselves seated. As we rise higher and higher above the crowd and the other rides in the park, I feel the fluttering in my stomach increase until we stop on the top. We stop for just a few seconds before we're plunged down and the fluttering has changed to tickles. I couldn't smile wider than I'm smiling right now, and I alternate between laughing and screaming for the whole ride. The ride has ended now, and my excitement has just grown. I can't wait to go on ALL the rides. We go on one ride after the other, until we're tired. It is around 5 PM now, and our adventure is about to come to an end. I'm not as happy right now because I know today's almost over, but there's still a little bit of happiness in me. We sit around again, going over everything we've done today, recalling the funny parts and laughing. We've been laughing and smiling all day, which could explain the almost compulsive use of the word throughout this writing. Our laughs sound so different from each other, yet so together and beautiful, more beautiful than any masterpiece Mozart or Bach have ever written. It's time to leave now, and we all separate. We're all going back to reality now, and I can already see small nostalgic smiles on their faces. I'm glad they feel the same way. We've all gone our separate ways, and I can't see them anymore.

I'm going over my whole day, and I think, wait, I actually say out loud, "The only thing I would want to be doing today, or any day for that matter, is going to an amusement park, having fun, with one of the most important people to me; my two best friends. It's true. I want be doing this everyday with people I value as much. This day was most probably a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, and I remember a quote by J. M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan) that I've written down before: "You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by." This quote reminds me of this day, and I can't find a logical and rational connection at this moment, but it just does.

That's all there is to it, and I don't feel the need to search for some sort of semblance either. I know exactly what I'm going to do when I go back home. I'm going to send the pictures we've taken throughout the day, to both my friends, and I have an intuition that they won't be posting these pictures on Facebook today, tomorrow, or in the future. We don't need the world to know how much fun we had today, because all that matters is that we remember, and that we know. And that's what makes it special.