Petrify: verb petrify \ˈpe-trə-ˌfī\

to make (someone) very afraid

Have you ever been on a roller coaster and been told that everything will be ok and you’ll have fun? Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought when my best friend decided to throw (ok, not THROW but decided to place me) me on this ride called “Skyrush” with him.

So, if you’re wondering why I decided to go on this ride with him, well..I really had no choice. This past weekend, I took a trip to Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania as a mini vacation before I start my new job. We spent two full days in Hershey Park riding basically every single ride they have. Now, people that know me know that I’m petrified to heights. I mean PETRIFIED. I can’t even get to the top of a ladder without breaking into the shakes and clammy hands. According to Frank Farley of The University of Wisconsin, there’s usually a chemical reaction that is triggered in your head when your fight or flight response triggers on. Dopamine, Serotonin, Adrenaline and Oxytocin usually turn on when this happens (aka your fight or flight response). Well that day, my fight or flight really turned on. As I sat down in my middle seat (with my best friend sitting on the seat that was over the track) we buckled ourselves in and took off. I was warned that going up, the track was steep; but did I pay attention? No. I just kept focusing on ways to smother my friend in his sleep for putting me through this.

Up we went, as I sat cursing my friend with every name in the book and my anxiety going haywire, I tried my 7-11 breathing technique and the next thing I know, we shot straight down a 90 degree drop. As we hit a few curves and went through a few cobra rolls (or what I thought were cobra rolls) the whole ride was finished in less than a minute. We pulled into the station and I unbuckled myself from my seat, I practically ran for the stairs. I ran as fast as my size eleven feet could take me. Down the stairs and out the exit and to the lockers, I grabbed our belongings and we made our way to the ice cream stand before we went on our next coaster (which just so happened to be indoors..and in the dark. It's ok, I survived). Because of the heat, we decided to call it a day early and make our way out of the park in search of food. We ended up at (what has become our hangout spot) The Hershey Lodge and had dinner at the Italian restaurant upstairs. Not only was the service wonderful, the atmosphere was so relaxing and the food was so worth all the money. We finished up and called it a night.

We returned to the park the next morning, on what would be a 95 degree day and this time, we utilized the water park inside the theme park. Once we got changed, we explored the kids area and decided to stand under the huge bucket that dumps water on everyone every 10 minutes. We got under the bucket and waited and once the water dropped, that kickstarted our weekend. We explored the rest of the kids area which had about a thousand water sockets, spewing water out in every direction. We weaved in and out of lines but decided to leave to explore the rest of what the park had to offer. We hopped on the Hershey Kisses Tower, which lifts you up in the air and slowly spins you around its base to deliver you a beautiful 360 degree view of Hershey and its surrounding area. Truly beautiful and a great photo op. Soon after, we decided to ride a roller coaster, to which I was thrown on "Storm Runner" which happens to be the parks fastest ride. "Storm Runner" opened on May 8, 2004. It goes 150 feet in the air and takes riders zero to 75 mph in less than 2 seconds (literally). Again, my anxiety kicked in but once we were up in the air, I was fine. Once we rolled back into the station and got off the ride, I was also left with no voice.

After all was said and done, our first and last days in Hershey were also spent at Chocolate World. That's all that needs to be said about that because it's literally a one stop shop of all Hershey's candy for cheap prices and fresh from the factory.

All in all, if you're thinking of visiting Hershey, JUST GO! I think it's safe to say I might (and hopefully) convinced you. Thank you to the wonderful PR team at Hershey for having Sean and I in the park for the weekend!