For the Love of the Ride

You may know the feeling: sweaty palms, that butterfly sensation in the pit of your stomach, maybe even the shortness of breath associated with anxiety. All of these things may be familiar to you if you have ever been in love. They may however, also be recognizable if you have ever ridden a rollercoaster! Although the two may seem incomparable, there are obvious likenesses between them.

First, the most obvious difference that stands out is the fact that loving someone requires you to interact with another individual. Someone who thinks, breathes, and has emotions that are affected by actions made by their partner. While a rollercoaster is obviously inanimate, it still has the ability to bring emotion to people on a large scale. It is common to see riders happy, scared, excited or even nervous. I believe that while remembering the feeling of being in love most can relate to all of these emotions also.

Next, loving someone usually involves a twosome. In most cases, two people that show acts of compassion and love towards one another without expectation. Anyone who has ridden a rollercoaster knows that only in rare cases are you "sharing" the ride with only the rollercoaster. In most cases, there are tens of others taking part in the exhilaration, and while most may be sharing the same thoughts as yourself; it is more of a collective experience than an intimate moment.

Furthermore, while being in an enjoyable, loving relationship has it's moments of bliss, which can be referred to as "ups," there are many trying moments, or "downs," that a couple will avoidably encounter. When thinking of a rollercoaster's "ups" and "downs," one is familiar with the actual physical motion of climbing the tracks in the beginning and waiting inevitably for the sudden drop that is in fact the start of the ride. After experiencing a rollercoaster for the first time, you then have an idea of when that initial plummet will occur. It will be at the same moment every time. Love does not come with a mathematically thought out plan. There is no engineering behind the emotions to know of a difficult encounter beforehand. And there is no way to know when this may come up or how long it will last.

In closing, while some may even refer to their romantic relationship as a rollercoaster, we know that the two do not actually have a thing to do with one another. However, the feelings that a person experiences in either circumstance can be described as a rush. Whether someone is brought to tears of joy, excitement or fear by the movement of a man made machine produced to entertain, or by an act of a significant other, one may think subconsciously about the likeness between: riding a rollercoaster, and being in love.