Surviving the edge of Orlando

Tasnia Chowdhury

Ms. Asuncion

English 9H Block 3

6 January 2016

Surviving the edge of Orlando

            “5…4…3...2…1… Rock on!” I could hear the screams and shouts in the distance as the roller coaster roared by at a terrifying speed. I’ve never been scared of roller coasters before but when I saw how fast this roller coaster launched, my heart was pacing very fast. I guess its name “Rock n’ Roller Coaster” suited its rapid speed. As I sat down in the seat of the roller coaster, all I could think was how I ended up here, and now all I wanted was for this ride to end.  Fears however did not have time to fill up in my mind as the roller coaster started to slow down as quickly as it took off at launch. Then I opened my eyes and all I could see were stop signs, colorful bright Hollywood signs and the screams began to fade away. My cousins started laughing and I was so relieved that I survived the ride. I then realized that this ride isn’t bad at all. My dad yelled, “This is it Tasnia. Don’t worry!”

            This experience all started a few months before stepping foot onto the roller coaster. One night, my family and I were having dinner and discussing where to go this summer, since my aunt was coming from London.

            All of a sudden my uncle suggested, “Since she's staying here for a month, let’s all go to Florida along with your cousins from Canada.”

            I was so happy that I couldn’t wait to tell my cousins about it. After all, Florida is my favorite state because the weather there is perfect for outdoor activities. We planned our trip with our uncle from Canada and we decided that we would go to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Daytona Beach. We also decided that we would rent a house and stay there for five days. I’ve never met my aunt before and I didn’t know much about her. After her arrival, my cousins came from Canada. I hadn’t seen them in two years and they were so grown up. It was a pleasure to meet my cousins after a long time and I looked forward to our trip.

            The next day we went shopping for our trip. We spent the entire day packing clothes since we were leaving at midnight. The drive down to Florida was exhausting. We took more breaks than we expected, therefore it took longer to get to our rental house. I took 18 hours to get to the house and once we arrived, it was almost past 7 pm. My cousins and I went to the backyard to check out the pool. It was huge. At the far end it was eight inches deep and four inches deep near the edge. We then ate dinner and showered to go to bed, but I wasn’t tired. So while our parents chatted,  we played Charades until we all felt tired.

            After breakfast the next day, we headed off to Daytona Beach. It was pretty far from where we were staying. The view was gorgeous the entire way to Daytona. The beach was very peaceful because there weren’t many people around on this particular day. The water was very salty so I kept my eyes shut to prevent it from burning my eyes. We made a castle with sand and took pictures together. Then we showered and changed to go eat lunch at an Italian restaurant.

            After eating lunch, we headed toward our house. Once we arrived at the rental house, we went straight into the swimming pool. The pool was very relaxing and warm. It was perfect after a long day at the beach. The next day we got ready to go to Disney World.

            When I first entered Magic Kingdom, the attraction I first ran to was Space Mountain. It’s an indoor outer space-themed roller coaster. Blue neon lights light up the ceilings above with black windows where people can see stars, planets and comets. This roller coaster in the dark is completely exhilarating.

            It was a warm day and we all wanted to get soaked, so we went on Splash Mountain. It’s a log-flume ride with a big drop which splashed us with water. Magic Kingdom is truly magical and our adventure became complete after watching the spectacular fireworks in the starry night.

            The final park we visited was Hollywood Studios. My two favorite attractions were Tower of Terror and Rock N’ Roller Coaster. Tower of Terror was an intense ride which had lots of big drops and creepy elevator agents. My cousin’s belt came off when the biggest drop was about to happen and my other cousin was wearing a scarf which flew up so I laughed at both of them. Overall the ride was amazing and I enjoyed the big drop.

            I thought Rock N’ Roller Coaster wasn’t going to be as terrifying as Tower of Terror. Once I saw how fast it roared by, I was ready to leave the line. My uncle and cousins encouraged me to overcome my fear because if I get scared this time, then I would always be afraid of roller coasters The seats weren’t comfortable enough for me to stop worrying about whether I would survive the ride. Then the countdown began and the roller coaster launched in a rapid speed. At first I was terrified but I had a lot of fun during the ride.

            This trip was exhausting, amazing and wonderful. I learned so much about myself and my family from this trip. I became close with my cousins and my family. I felt happy while hanging out with my cousins and spending time with my family. At the same time I missed my two brothers who didn’t go to Florida with us. This trip made me realize how important my family is to me and it was an adventure that I will remember for the rest of my life.