I’m sitting in the seat of a rollercoaster. Going slowly up a steep hill on the track. Hearing the tick-tick-tick of the strain of metal dragging us forward. As I sit here I begin to think. Life is a lot like a rollercoaster. You start at ground level. New to the sensation of being in your particular situation. Then slowly at first, you begin to move forward. Picking up speed as you move through life. Then you hit either a drop or a rise. The drop comes quickly, sending you flying at incredible speeds, wildly, dangerously through your predicament. Then its over and you feel either exhilarated by your experience or quite terrified. The rise however comes with struggle. You move slowly upwards. Taking your time and taking everything in around you. But there is also the small amount of anxiety in the back of your mind, because you know that the higher you rise, the more you are in danger of losing from the drop. And there is ALWAYS a drop at some point or another. So reaching your peak you look around. Feeling like a champion, the whole world beneath you. Then you look forward. You see the only path laid out before you. Down. For a moment your heart catches in your throat and your blood pressure rises and then you plunge. Life flings you forward, throwing you straight into the chaos like never before. Then you hit a twist, leaving you disoriented, and a loop that rattles you to the core and spins the world upside down right before your eyes. Any one of us may close our eyes and wish it to end, or embrace it and allow yourself to live through it. Others may just power through knowing the end of it all is near and a few may even laugh in the face of it all. But then after all of the chaos you slow down. You glide gently along a straight and narrow path. A balance of everything, of life. You coast along until you reach the end of your ride and you step off. But for some of us, unable to control what is happening around us, we de-rail. Flung from the tracks and left to the mercy of the world. And for most to which that happens to, the ride ends early. But there are those occasional strong lucky souls that are capable of pulling through. Stepping free of the wreckage and becoming both scarred but possibly enlightened and prepared for what there is ahead of them. Then my mind pulls free of its thoughts as I realize I am at my peak. I look towards the drop ahead of me and give a knowing smile, prepared for what is to come.