The Time of My Life

Last week when I was sitting on the side of the pool watching Raleigh and Madeline perfect their backstrokes, some good friends of ours randomly asked me if I wanted to go to Six Flags with their family later that afternoon. They were taking their boys, and they had just enough free passes to get us into the park (minus Dallas, who was working).

I told them I would consider it - I had a lot to do to get ready for a church activity I was semi-in charge of, and I am seven months pregnant, and it does feel like the middle of July here (even though it's the beginning of June). And I would have to take three kids by myself (no Dallas) to a theme park!

But it was free. And spontaneous! And just what we needed to make a little summer memory for the girls, who have been dying to go to Six Flags.

So I went. We packed some snacks, wore our swimsuits, talked it up and got really excited, and we even made it there in 40 minutes! The big boys went with Mr. Mike on the big rides, and Audra and I took the girls and the younger ones with us to all of the kiddie rides. It worked out great! Especially since I cannot ride anything anyway (pregnant as I am).

It was such a fun day for the girls - they couldn't have been more excited! They've never been on roller coasters, and they were so brave! I had just as much fun watching them as I would have had riding them. I think. We spent a lot of time cooling off at the water park, and we played HARD! We spent time in parts of Six Flags I've never been in, mostly because we had little kids with us who couldn't go on big rides.

But walking through the park, a flood of memories came to me of trips-to-Six-Flags-past. It's unreal to think that the same ride that my friend Brea Zondervan pulled me onto (semi-against-my-will) seventeen years ago is still there. I remember that I was hesitating about going on it because I'd never been on a roller coaster with loops. I sat down next to her for a second, and she pulled the strap down. The kind that you can't unlatch until the ride is over. And when I am in a dangerous situation, I pretty much freeze up and become useless. Well, I froze. But as the train slowly made its way up the hill, I was thinking in my mind of every possible way to squeeze out of my belt and jump off the ride (because of my impending death-by-roller-coaster). At the first loop, I squeezed my eyes shut. Wait? Was I screaming and laughing?! Was this really fun? After that I was in love with scary roller coasters, and the Mind Bender is still one of my favorite rides (mild as it is).

Six Flags is a graveyard of former boyfriends and love-interests. If you're not already "together," you will be by the time your night at Six Flags is over. But come Monday at school, you won't be. If you're already dating, Six Flags will deepen your romance! There's nothing like adding intense summer humidity, tight crowds of people, and screaming together on big mechanical hills to enhance your relationships.

For me it holds memories of best friends and terrible pranks involving BB pellets being dropped by handfuls from the Sky Train onto lunch-goers under plastic umbrellas and very expensive, very potent stink bombs being let off in the lines to get onto the rides. It is holding hands for the first time with crushes and running together in the dark. It is middle school and high school all blurred together.

And at 6:00 pm when the storm clouds started rolling in, and we were making a run for our cars, I could remember this same scene, half a lifetime in the past. Only this time, I was holding hands with my girls and pushing a stroller. I was laughing and running with the loves of my current life.

And as I drove home with chattering sweet little girls in the backseat (one of them falling asleep) and the thunder booming overhead, I looked back at them in the rearview mirror, and a haunting song from the past came on the radio:

Another turning point;

a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.

For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

My thoughts immediately turned to one of those boyfriends-past, and a scene played in my mind from ten years ago. High school was over and he was home from his mission, and we were still the best of friends. We were out together, and he drove into a cul-de-sac, and before I knew it, he was proposing to me. I heard myself telling him, "No."

No more words were spoken, and silently he drove me home. Green Day came on the radio and played this song for us in its entirety. It was a short drive, and this is a short song, but it played from beginning to end and drowned out the silence. And during that drive, a flood of good memories drowned out the hurt that we both felt. It was melancholy and nostalgic, wonderful and sad, and "in the end it was right."

And half a lifetime since my first trip to Six Flags, I realize that Dallas and I have never been there together. In some ways I hope we never do. I'll let those memories rest in peace.

And continue to make memories for the present.

I'm having the time of my life.