Rifat Khan, “Fear Often Leads to Enjoyment”

FEAR OFTEN LEADS TO ENJOYMENT

Rifat Khan

“I’m never listening to y’all again,” I said while losing my breath, trying to get a word out. While everyone laughed, I started enjoying the moment. I realized it wasn’t that bad and I was exaggerating it all. We were all there. It was me, my brother, his girlfriend, my uncle, my aunt, her husband, and her two little kids. We took a trip to Orlando to have fun. It was early morning and the sun was beaming. We all wore shorts and t-shirts. My outfit was nice that day. I had on some orange shorts with a white tee and an orange bucket hat with a yellow smiley face in the middle. To end the outfit off, I wore Adidas Human Races with yellow and orange laces. Nobody that day could compare to what I was wearing. I was comfortable, and I was looking nice. When the day started my brother’s girlfriend asked excitedly, “RIFAT, you ready to do this?!” “Yeah, of course I am,” I replied anxiously. Adding to the conversation my brother said, “Rifat not getting on anything today. He be scared.” “Well we all know you not going on the rides being that short,” I said. Everybody started laughing. “Ok, come on we gotta go now,” my Aunt Ruma said, turning serious. When we arrived at the place, we were stressed over getting in. The long lines to enter the parking lot were even bad. So, finally, we parked and went in. The lines were even longer. I almost got lost with my uncle because we went to the bathroom and everybody left us. At this point, I was ready to finally go in. But, with our luck, people got stopped by security, so the line was

delayed even more. After a while, we finally got to the end of the line. Finally, I stepped into Disney World. Being outside felt refreshing after being in a long line. But, even though we were all excited, my aunt’s five-year-old daughter was in a bad mood. We all tried to fix her attitude, but it was not working. I was mad at the fact that her parents wouldn’t be able to have fun because their daughter was acting like this. Reminds me to never have kids. That wasn’t going to stop me from having fun though. On the first ride we went on, my brother’s girl told me, “Don’t worry it’s not fast. It doesn’t have loops.” “Brit, you better not be lying. I’m trusting you,” I said excitedly. Little did I know I shouldn’t have trusted her. We all agreed that we were going on this ride. “I’m gonna feed my baby Lina and watch after my kids,” my Aunt Ruma said. None of us wanted to leave her behind, but it is what it is. We went and waited in line, and I was excited. I really wanted to go on this ride now. It had a big guitar in the front right when you entered. I remember the line was so long, we waited for about forty minutes. To be honest, I didn’t even know what ride we were going on, but I looked closely at the guitar and there it was: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. The line started getting shorter, and going through the building to get to the ride was pretty nice. There was a studio, and I remember I acted like I was going to sing. My feet start to cramp up, even though this was the first ride we went on. At this point, I was just ready for the ride. Now, we finally entered where you’re supposed to go on the ride. Still, the line was a little long, but we were right there. When I saw how fast the ride was taking off, I started getting anxious. I started regretting every moment of getting on this line. I saw people going inside the coaster waiting for it to take off.

“3,2,1, GO!” Screams were all I heard when the coaster took off. As my heart beat out of my chest, “You good, Rifat?” my brother asked. “Bro no, I’m not. Ya girl lied to me,” I said while looking at her in her face. As my family was talking to each other, I was telling myself It’s going to be okay. I’m fine, I can do this. It’s just a simple ride. This will be my first roller coaster that’s fast, but she said there’s no loops, so I’m gonna be fine. Well, I thought I would be. My anxiety started acting up now. I started breathing in and out while getting on the ride. I sat next to my Uncle Ashraf. My brother and Brit sat in front of us and my Aunt’s husband Luke sat behind us with a random person. I was on the right side of the ride while Ashraf was on the left. My brother was right in front of me. The ride slowly started going to the starting place. I was regretting everything right then. Music was playing in my ears, I wanted it to stop. I wanted to get off but it’s too late. Brit told me, “Relax, you’ll be okay.” I was ignoring everything at that point. I didn’t want anyone to talk to me. I wanted the music to stop, and I wanted to get off.

To be continued . . .

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