Personal+Narrative+VL

Personal Narrative VL

Last year in 7th grade, we all went on a class field trip to Universal Islands of Adventure. When I first got there, I was so excited that I was practically jumping up and down. My friends and I went all over the park, going from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and drinking butterbeer all the way to riding the Hulk on the other side of the park. However, the most memorable part of the trip took place in Dr. Seuss land.

My group was in the Dr. Seuss section of the park, looking at the pastel decorations and the little children running around. We then decided to go on one of the rides. The line for the first ride we went on was super long, and it felt like we were waiting forever. When we finally got on the actual ride, it was a huge letdown. All you did was sit on a fake train while it moved very slowly and taught you the alphabet. Because of that, we didn't have big expectations for the Cat in the Hat ride.

For the Cat in the Hat ride, you sat down in a cart designed to look like a fake couch. It was supposed to spin you around so you could see everything around you illustrating the story that was being read to you. However, something different than expected happened when we were a little less than halfway through the ride. We spun around a corner, passing the Cat in the Hat carrying the fish bowl, and were about to enter a tunnel with spinning lights when the ride came jerking to a stop and all the lights went out.

We sat there quietly for a minute, wondering what had happened, when a deep voice came on over the intercom. It asked us to please remain seated, saying that there was a technical issue and that the ride should be running again soon. While we sat there, we were giggling and joking around. The shadows looked like people so a few of my friends teased that they were real and coming to get us. We all laughed.

However, the ride didn't start up again for a while, and I started to get creeped out. The shadows really did start to look like menacing figures, and there were weird glowing lights in the tunnel. Every once in a while, the voice would come on again, saying the same exact thing, and every time I would jump in my seat at the sound. I started to imagine things coming from the dark corners. Then the lights suddenly came on, and my fears were put to rest. We went through the rest of the ride fairly quickly. It was really jerky at the end, but it was a lot better than just sitting there in the dark. As we got off, the ride attendant apologized for the inconvenience.

Out in the sunshine, it all seemed very funny. We joked about how the Cat in the Hat was out to get us, and how only we could manage to make a kids' ride malfunction. We walked to another section of the park and had a blast. The rest of the trip was a ton of fun. I loved my class trip to Universal, even the weird episode with the Cat in the Hat.Yeah, it was a bit creepy at the time, but it was something fun to talk about afterward. A lot of things are like that. What seems scary in the dark might actually be funny in the light.