Bad Experience That Taught Me a Lesson

Last year on the class trip I rode Apollo's Chariot (see picture to right) one too many times. Now before I start, let me get a fact straight. I HAVE NEVER THROWN UP BECAUSE OF A ROLLER COASTER IN MY LIFE (before class trip at least). I mean yea I get a bit queasy after riding once or twice but had never thrown up afterward.

It started out a nice day for the parks, nice and sunny. Because I am a big fan of coasters, I joined up with the group that was going around to pretty much all the roller coasters in the park. We went around riding the roller coasters, and I sat out for one or two rides during the day because I was starting to feel sick. Everything was going fine until the evening... that's when we went back to Apollo's Chariot. Apollo's Chariot is a humpback roller coaster, in other words it goes up and down, up and down, up and down, and so on. They take pictures of you that you can purchase as you leave the exit of the ride, so we were trying to get a perfect picture of four of us wearing our class shirts, all with our hands up in the air. The problem was that Ryan (not the Ryan that currently goes to HVA) always had a terrified look on his face. We were wanting a picture of everybody grinning with our arms up in the air. We went on it, I forget how many times, but it was something like two or three times. But then I was really starting to feel sick. I was thinking to myself "Come on, you can make it once more." So we went. Ryan actually didn't look like he was completely terrorized that time. But when we came into the station I felt REALLY sick. Marci looked at me and said "Are you OK? You are really pale." I got off, got a drink and was trying not to think about throwing up. Then pastor Corea came along and asked me "Are you about to blow chunks?" I had never heard of it being referred to in such a funny way, so that got me thinking about throwing up and I about started laughing. Then I threw up.

After I got cleaned up and the park staff was notified, we came back and I bought the picture (see below). (Left to right - Marci, Malinda, Ryan, Me [Nathanael]).

That class trip I learned a couple lessons. 1: Never go on another roller coaster when you feel REALLY motion sick. 2: If you throw up, it will take a long time to live it down.

For the rest of the class trip, I was known as "Upchuck" by some of the kids. It even made 7th place for the 10 most memorable happenings of the school year.