A Leap of Faith Anonymous

I watched as eight people plummeted at the speed of lightning towards surefire slaughter. I watched lines of people eagerly waiting to embrace the same fate. I watched my sister giddy with excitement for her turn. Being voluntarily strapped to a metal chair and tossed around like a Ping-Pong ball was not my idea of fun. Was I the only one who couldn’t comprehend the appeal of a roller coaster?

There’s a distinct difference between a fear of heights and a fear of falling. Heights don’t faze me. In fact, I had recently climbed the Dayara peak in the Himalayas. It’s the fear of falling from heights that can leave me with irrevocable panic shooting through my veins. My entire life, chock-full of strategic evasions of any kind of theme parks, had led up to this moment. Here I was, trapped in Kuala Lumpur’s world famous amusement park and somehow in line for the ‘Corkscrew’. I had convinced myself that if I could muster up the courage to sit on a roller coaster, I would finally be let in on the fun everyone else was having. I was determined to leave Genting Highlands as a new and improved version of myself.

My turn came and I willed my legs to move towards the seating arrangements. I tried not to think about the questionable...