Six Flags

Cindy and I went to Six Flags on a random Friday last summer. Cindy met me at my apartment and I drove from there. Although I'm more comfortable being a passenger than I used to be, I still prefer to drive to places I may get anxious. Cindy knew this and was prepared for a potential panic attack on the way.

Six Flags is about 50 miles from my apartment. We started the drive on 695 then got on 97 then Crain Highway then we were supposed to get on Route 214, but there was some traffic, so we had to take some back roads. We turned around right by my friend Holly's house in Crofton, so I knew where I was and I didn't feel too anxious. From there, I can't tell you where we went. We got on this back road and passed lots of grass and fields; I was looking forward to turning in five miles like my GPS said. Once we got to the turn, it said I had to stay on that road for ten more miles before turning. This made my hands a little shaky and my mind a little racey. We were about to be about fifteen miles from the last highway that I knew of since I couldn't predict if there would be one up ahead. I wanted to turn around, but I kept driving. Clenching my fists around the steering wheel, I stared ahead and kept going. Cindy knew I was anxious and convinced me to keep going.

We passed more grass, corn fields, and a few houses. It didn't seem like we were heading towards a Six Flags in a suburb of D.C., but as the miles decreased the lanes in the road increased and soon enough we saw a sign for Six Flags. We pulled into the parking lot around 11:00 a.m. Cindy, correct me if I'm wrong on that information. We decided that we needed to leave by 2:00 p.m. to avoid the rush hour traffic. Most of the time I was there, I was worried about hitting traffic on the way home though my anxiety did subside a little bit when we walked through the gates.

We went right to the water park. We put our stuff in a locker and wore just our bathing suits. We looked at the high water slides and decided to start with a mid-sized one. It wasn't straight down or too long. It had a drop at the end, but it wasn't too extreme. We grabbed tubes and walked up the wet, never-ending spiral stairs. Once we got the the top, I wanted to go back down. We were up high looking down at the all the stairs we had just walked up. It would take a few minutes to push past the people lining up behind us to get back down. I knew the slide would be faster. Cindy said we had to face our fears and go down the slide so I listened to her and went down it. It was fun and the ride was over in only a few seconds.

It's ridiculous how much thought it takes to go down one water slide. This is just how my mind works. I wish I could turn off all the anxiety/thoughts/overthinking, but if I did I would be a different person.

Cindy and I spent the next couple hours going up stairs and down slides and each time I thought about it a little bit less. By the end, I was enjoying the slides more than I was hating the stairs. We floated in the lazy river and went down a few kiddie slides. Each time I got to the top of a water slide, I glanced in the distance at the road to make sure there wasn't a back-up or too much traffic. It looked clear and we were sticking to our time schedule.

After the water park, Cindy wanted to get on one roller coaster. The thought of being trapped a small car slowly going up a hill just to quickly fall down it just felt like one big panic attack to me. All growing up and through high school, I loved roller coasters. I always wanted to go on the biggest and best ones wherever we were. Years later, looking up at the hills and the inability to get off gave me a post-panic attack headache without even having one. I needed a sprite. Cindy decided to skip the rollercoaster because she didn't think riding one by herself would be that much fun. We needed to be back to the car by 2:00 p.m. anyway and that time was approaching.

The first few miles of a drive home from anywhere always gives me some anxiety because I don't know what's ahead. I don't know if it's going to be a smooth drive or if there's a back-up on a highway far from my home that I don't know how to get around. This drive home was perfect. We didn't have to take the country back roads; we got right on Route 214 which took us to Crain Highway then to 97 then back to 695. We didn't hit any traffic and I didn't have a panic attack. I was relieved for myself and for Cindy that neither of those things happened. Now hopefully she will go back again with me this summer.