As our ten-car train cranked up the 105-foot-tall chain-lift hill for the ninety-degree one-hundred-foot drop, I regretted hopping on. My amped-up high school students whooped and hollered while I gripped my vest harness tighter. Why had I let them talk me into this insanity? Eyes shut, I held my breath in between screams and during each violent dive loop, cutback, corkscrew, and over-banked curve. As we coasted into the brake run and exited, students clapped and cheered me on. I couldn’t help but compare the wild ride to that of their own adolescent lives. Was I cheering them on enough?
Wendy Newbury is a music educator working on a memoir about her eleven-year separation from family due to war, self-discovery, and community. www.newburywrites.com Instagram and Twitter: @newburywrites