“Terrified” 10 Year Old Faces His Fears In an Amusement Park

The very first time a child goes to an amusement park is usually one of the most

memorable moments. Especially if the child is scared. The child has a great time. It should be a

child’s dream come true, but it wasn’t for 10-year-old Abi who had just moved from the country

which he had lived in for the first 10 years of his life. When the boy first visited Disney Sea, it

was the end of the school year and the whole class, except him, was excited. All the students

were early that day. Abi was the only one who was terrified. Throughout the day, he had a pit in

his stomach. Although he ultimately got on the elevator ride, the “Tower of Terror” scared him to

death. After hearing his schoolmates talk about the ride, he knew he would never get on. He

might make it to the entrance, but he would chicken out. But that day, the 10-year-old somehow

managed to come out of the elevator with a picture of him laughing his heart out while

descending on the elevator. Like Abi, many other people refrain from facing their fears,

preventing themselves from savoring the gifts of life.

Although facing his fears that have been manifesting for a year was hard and hurtful, he

embraces it and later informs his classmates that he doesn’t regret getting on the elevator.

During that day, Abi had come up with a few ways to deal with his anxiety. The main one was

distracting himself. He found it hard since whenever he thought about not thinking about the

petrifying ride, all he could think about was the Tower. There are many similar cases. He didn’t

realize it at first, but there was a solution. (Name), Abi’s friend forced him to go on the Indiana

Jones ride where (Name) sits on the left side of the row while he made another friend of Abi’s sit

on the right side, leaving Abi to sit in the middle. Suddenly, the roller coaster started moving.

“Are you OK?” (Name) says,” you look absorbed ever since we talked about the Tower.” I just

shrug. In the middle of the ride when the picture of us riding the roller coaster is taken, (Name)

says, “Soon, the boulder following us will fall into the waterfall so if you don’t want to get wet,
you should duck.” Abi suspiciously did as (Name) said for the rest of the ride. Abi was

absent-minded throughout the rollercoaster and was thinking about the tower and forgot to

notice something that he would have noticed if it was any other amusement park that he was in.

The display showed the picture of the row in which Abi and his friends rode in, only, Abi wasn’t

shown there. Determined to not make the same mistake again, he automatically went back to

normal and prevented the prank from happening again. Abi only realized what his friend’s actual

intentions were after the day was over.

Many people are sometimes in the same type of predicament as Abi. When he tried

imagining laughing and shouting with joy, all he could think about was how fast the elevator

would fall, the seatbelt malfunctioning, and all the statistics and videos of roller coasters failing.

The thought made him feel like According to Chapman University in Oregon, 57% of Americans

are so afraid of someone close to them becoming ill, that they worry constantly. This could

cause people to hold back and not enjoy their lives with them and always worry. In her book

“Fear is not an option,” Monica Berg wrote, “If we live a risk-averse existence because of fear,

we also live a joy-averse existence.” By that, she means if people don’t take risks and face their

fears, then their lives would be joyless.

Abi believes that because he got on the elevator and focused on enjoying it with his

friends, he found out how enjoyable and lively the ride was. He also found out that letting go of

his fears allowed him to be more relaxed and made the atmosphere around him and his friends

more convivial during the time that they consumed on the way back to school. The same day, on

the ride back home, Abi wrote in his journal, “I’m glad that I got on the elevator because if I

didn’t, I wouldn’t know if I could or not.”