Sweaty palms. I began rethinking this decision. My mom had asked me if I wanted to do this.

“Yes,” I had said, “I am really excited!”

I lied. I was actually very terrified.

I can’t wimp out in front of my family. I thought.

If they were going on it, then it must be fine!

We were standing in line to go on the Mystery Mine ride at Dollywood in Tennessee. I was terrified to go on it because from the looks of it, the ride seemed very dark. I don’t do dark rides. To me, they are the scariest things invented to man. But, I of course was overreacting. Right? Nope. This was definitely a bad idea.

I have to get out of this line!

I kept thinking this idea over and over. We slightly moved up from our previous places to the front of the line.

Maybe this won’t be so bad!

We sat in the eight seater, two rows of four seats car.

Yea, this seems fine! Ok, here we go!

The cart started going into a dark cave looking set. Right away there was a little hill that we went down. We rode through the cave with sight light with no direction of where we were going and then we stopped. All we saw was the track ahead of us, going straight up. The cart caught on the line and we went slowly up on our backs, staring at the ceiling, clueless of what would happen when we were off of the hill.

Anticipation was awaiting me when we finally got to the top.

What is going to happen when we curl around the top?

I was glad to see that there were no dips we didn’t know of. Sunlight pierced my eyes as I realised we were on the outside part of the ride. We flew down and up and down and then straight tracks. Then we got to the fast part. Cruising down a hill while going sideways, we took a turn then went back around to another sideways turn. Then we went back into the darkness of the mine. We blindly went down a hill until we stopped again and looked ahead. We were staring at another set of tracks that went straight up, though we could hardly make out anything. Slowly we started going straight up, again, on our backs until we stopped. We were staring at the wall that all of a sudden ignited with flames and we were flung forward to a down hill tangle of turns and dips until finally, the ride was over. I thought I never would be able to get off of that ride.

“Was that so bad?” My mom had asked me.

I had to think about this answer for a while. Was it really that bad?

“I guess not, But I’m not going on it again.”

Going on this ride has taught me to take risks, even if I didn’t like the outcome.