October Books: 3/6 (Death on the Nile and Rest in Pink)
Howdy, squiders! Hope you’re doing well. Me, I’ve picked up a cold or allergies or who knows, but definitely involves sneezing and coughing and all that jazz.
Last week we talked about peanut butter, and this week we’re on rollercoasters, and maybe next week we’ll return to our regularly scheduled shenanigans.
Last week we spent eight days in a row at different theme parks, five at Walt Disney World (Typhoon Lagoon, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom) and three at Universal Orlando (Epic Universe, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure). It was A Lot. We averaged 16000 steps per day, and we basically rode everything at least once.
(Except at Epic Universe because the lines were so long that it wasn’t doable to do everything. Or even most things. The only thing we got to do in Super Mario World was the MarioKart thing, and the only reason we got to do that was because we got a single use express pass because we waited for an hour for a show in Harry Potter land that ended up getting cancelled.)
(That said, the MarioKart thing was awesome and I enjoyed it very much.)
(We got to do nothing in the Harry Potter land.)
(The theming is very pretty.)
(ANYway.)
At Disney we rode all the rides together as a family, but once we got to Universal there were a couple of rollercoasters I noped out of. I am afraid of heights, and I have ridden enough rollercoasters in my life to know that there is a threshold where something is no longer fun for me, and on rollercoasters it is typically the large, near vertical hills where you kind of hover at the top before plummeting down.
None of Disney’s rollercoasters have this. I don’t mind fast, or backwards, or upside down (though the Rock’n’rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios does make me nauseous), but those big hills are a no go. And I did go on the Tower of Terror even though I absolutely hate hate hate being dropped so I felt like I had made my sacrifices.
When we made the switch to Universal, I explained to the kids that there were three rollercoasters I would not be going on, and that was just going to be what it was. (For those who care, it was the Stardust Racers (which is the one that guy died on last month), the Velocicoaster, and the Hulk coaster.) I explained my reasoning, and that I had ridden other rollercoasters in the past like them, and that I was speaking from my own personal experience, and that the rest of the family was welcome to go on them if they so chose.
And they were like, yeah, of course, Mom, we understand.
Until they went on them. And then it changed to omg, it’s so fun, you have to go, it’s great.
And I said that it was great that they had enjoyed them, but still no.
(Also I went off and got iced coffee while they did them, which was great. It was quite hot.)
But it got me thinking how difficult it seems to be for people to accept that others may feel different than them in whatever situation. I don’t like rollercoasters with big, steep hills. They do. But even if I give in and ride the rollercoaster, it’s not going to change my opinion. It’s just going to make me feel bad.
But you see this all the time. With people goading friends who don’t drink, or don’t want to watch a particular show or movie, or don’t want to hang out with certain people or in certain places. With some of it, I think people take it as a judgement against them, like with the drinking thing, like the other person has made a moral decision against them and their actions instead of just stating a personal preference or need.
Some of it does probably come from wanting to share something that they enjoy with people they love.
And in some cases, yes, you give in to the peer pressure and, oh, hey, you do like it, and your friends were right.
It’s an interesting thing to consider. It’s certainly one thing to not bother to try something, but it doesn’t seem to matter whether you have experience with that and have made an informed decision for yourself or not.
Humans are weird.
How do you feel about rollercoasters, squiders?
