Metaphor Madness by Chelsea Pexton

Life is a roller coaster. We all have our ups and our downs. When you are having a great time and loving life, the car is slowly traveling upward. When you are discouraged and depressed, however, you are zooming down a hundred feet from the top. There are times when our lives are just fine but suddenly everything is turned upside down, the loop de loops. There are the corkscrews where we are spinning in circles and confused, these are the times when our lives are hectic and busy. Air keeps flying past us, just as time does, flaring our cheeks out wide like in classic cartoons. Just as roller coasters are different, so are our lives. No two are exactly the same. Roller coasters are individually diverse, and so are people. We all have different thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Most everyone’s lives have many happy times. When I was three years old my grandmother took me to see a ballet. Unlike my older cousins she also brought, who whined and cried throughout the entire show, I sat contempt in my seat and stared at the beautiful dancers. A few years later my grandma let me take ballet lessons. When we went in to purchase my first pair of ballet slippers, my teacher whispered to my grandma, “Oh yes, she’s got natural talent and will do very well!” I was so excited on my first day and not at all nervous. I couldn’t wait until I was older and better when I would dance en pointe like the older girls. I have been dancing ballet ever since. Last year in January my class started pointe. (Where you dance on your toes) It was the happiest time of my life because it was what I had been waiting for since I was little! At first it was very difficult but with much effort and practice I was soon very balanced and able to accomplish very complicated steps.

Throughout my younger years there were ups and downs, though, that made ballet much less enjoyable. In level one I was made fun of for being the “Teacher’s pet” and had few friends in my class. In level three the new teacher was strict and was often angry with us making class hard to attend. But through my roller coasters ups and downs I stuck with it and now I am at a point where I hardly ever have downs at all. We have all had the great moments of the ups where we wish we could just stay there forever looking down at the great view, but we have also had the down where we are plummeting down into destruction and want nothing but to ride back up to the top. But roller coasters aren’t made that way, they only travel forward. We have to keep moving forward. Life is a roller coaster and we are strapped in the car whether we wish to be or not. We might as well sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.