When my family goes to Disneyland, sometimes we also go to Disney’s California Adventure. And for years, my dad always asked me, “hey Reese, want to try the tower of terror?” And I always said “no” or “I feel kinda sick” even though I was just scared. Eventually, the Tower of Terror got shut down and I felt so sad because the next time we went I was going to do it. But then, a new ride rose from the ashes of the Tower of Terror… the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Fortunately, it was exactly the same ride type, but with a different theme. And I wanted to do it more than anything. So we went over to it. Of course, like all new Disneyland rides, the wait for it was an hour-long. My dad and I hopped in line before it got worse. During that hour’s wait, I had a bunch of time to think about this decision. I have a tendency to overthink things if I have too much time to think. So as we got closer, I got more scared and the number of butterflies in my stomach multiplied. I thought that I was going to faint because of all the thoughts that clouded my mind. Luckily my dad was there and made me feel safer and reassure me. But he also understood if I was too scared, so he gave me an option. Either we keep on going or we exit the line now. I didn’t want to let him down or myself down. I gathered myself up and shooed the butterflies away. I was going to do this. We were about to go into our seats when the butterflies returned. The ride started and dropped us down. We were falling (but it was part of the ride). I’m pretty sure that got rid of the butterflies. And I forgot about everything except for this fun time I was having with my dad. The last part of the ride brought us to the very top of the tower, showed us a great view of Disneyland, and dropped us all the way down. Even to this day, I am so proud of how I took that and I can remember it as though it was yesterday. At that time, I shined very brightly, and that light will never disappear from my memories.
My parents only cared about my grades. I think they may have been depressed while I was growing up. Definitely, no one practiced self-help techniques or knew about them in my family.
