Okay, ready, set jump, I repetitively say feeling my heart beat through my chest. Edges have always been a fear of mine while looking down at a 23-foot drop into icy blue waters. During the summer, I took a trip to Action Park, with my travel camp, Teenscape. Since I have never been to this amusement park, I did research about this park. I was struck with terror, after investigating the park, and learning of horror stories of peoples’ deaths at this park. This park was shut down in 1996 due to numerous injury-related accidents at the park. The morning of the trip I was fearful of the park, but I rationalized that in order for the park to reopen, it must have been thoroughly vetted and deemed safe. Upon arriving early in the morning to the park,
There should be no man made machinery operating in the park unless absolutely necessary. The creation of the National Park Service is to preserve wilderness in a way that gives people the opportunity to experience nature in all its wonder. It was never intended to create amusement parks where people never leave the safety of the modern age and look at the natural world through glass. Being completely enveloped in nature has many benefits, from physical such as lowering blood pressure, to psychological in boosting moods. According to Tyler Tapps in Parks & Recreation: “Recent research indicates that outdoor activity is associated with positive mental and physical benefits, including increased cardiovascular function, decreased stress levels, and reduced blood pressure” (Tapps). Abbey understood this, as did many Americans. Today however the number of people willing to immerse themselves in the nations parks is decreasing. In Desert Solitaire, abbey puts it this way: “A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourist can in a hundred miles” (Abbey). Today many members of the younger generation have lost that sense of joy and wonder in the outdoor setting. This change would bring back the love of nature in this
island to determine whether or not the park is as safe and under control as
Since its creation in 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) has had to balance between its two goals, which are to preserve wilderness and nature and to provide the public with access to these wonders in a monitored environment. These two goals tend to create a conflict for the NPS because as soon as one goal is given more priority than the other, the administration of national parks is harshly criticized by the public. The accusation that by allowing people to experience the wilderness, the NPS is corrupting the natural environment is very common, as well, as the criticism towards the lack of government funding to preserve nature and history. However, regardless of arguable criticism and a certain need for improvement, after one hundred years,
One summer morning, I woke up excited. My friends and I were going to Hershey Park. I’ve been busy this summer, so this is the first time I was able to go. Hershey Park is a big amusement park with big roller coasters and a big water park. The Fahrenheit is my favorite ride there. I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, and waited for them to pick me up at my house. While I sat on my couch, I had my bag with a towel and a bathing suit for the water park and I could put my phone there. I was ready to go.
...I jumped on the boulder and there I stood one jump away from gaining back my popularity. Looking at the cold ice had already given me shiver. I counted to three and jumped, I had broken the ice feet first. Beneath the ice was dark and extremely cold. I wasn’t able to see anything; I was frightened that I wouldn’t find my way back. It was an unusual feeling, like time had stopped and everything was moving slow. I ran out of breath and eventually found my way back. The whole school assumed that I had died from coldness and wouldn’t come back up. After warming up, it was the new kids turn to jump. Everyone waited but he couldn’t jump he choked. I was glad and proud of myself for overcoming my anxiety. The quote by Amit Ray really inspired me and will never be forgotten: “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
The article “Joyland Amusement Park Comes To A Sad End” is written by Beccy Tanner, who is a Journalist for the Wichita Eagle. Beccy Tanner specializes in articles about Kansas History. In her article she talked about the demolition of Joyland. The park was built in 1949 by the Ottaway’s and in the 1970’s the Nelson family purchased the park from the Ottaway family. The park then closed in 2006. The purpose of this article was to inform Wichita citizens about the demolition of Joyland, a place that once held many precious memories. The targeted audience was specifically the people who live in or near the Wichita area. The article was very easy to read and understand. I agree with the author’s stance that Joyland needs to be preserved, but
Because of some of the circumstances that make me who I am, it is hard to say I have any one definitive home. Instead, I have had two true homes, ever since I was a young child. What makes this even more of a conundrum is that my homes have always had little in common, even though they are only a few hundred miles apart. Between the big city of Houston, Texas, and the small town of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, I have grown up in two very different towns that relate to one another only in the sense that they have both raised me.
The Seven Falls State Park, is a park located in Higganum, Connecticut. It is right along the border of Middletown and Haddam. This side of the town is home to many tree-infested areas and countless streams connecting it to the Connecticut River. The entrance to the park is off of Saybrook Road. The parking lot takes up about a quarter of the land, which makes me think of this as more of a commuter lot than anything. The parking lot is made from black gravel and is gated by recycled telephone poles. As you park your car, you immediately can tell it is Winter. The air is crisp, showing my breath as I cough from seasonal allergies. I immediately throw my hands into the pocket of my hoodie, bow my head, and hop over the fence to the field. As I stop and scan the land i realize how dead it is.
Gorsebrook park is a park off of Robie street that offers lots of activities and benefits to the community. It was built in the 1800s and renamed after Gorsebrook in 1824. (Landry,2005) The park comes with tennis courts, basketball court, ice hockey rink and tobogganing hills. It is a great place for walks and to play recreational supports for free, to anyone that visits the park. It is a large land mass and is covered mostly by grass along with a tree line across the sides. I chose the property because of the tennis courts and because I also did a previous assignment on the lot, where I had to volunteer to clean the park so I have sufficient knowledge of the park. Other than that, the park had all of the requirements for the assignment, so it was a good fit. Gorsebrook park has
“Come on, guys,” I yelled at my family, which consists of my mom Madonna, my father John, and my two sisters Alissa and Kara, as I ran frantically across the jam-packed parking lot to the opening gate that led to a world of adventure. As wide as the world around, my eyes pierced at the doorway to a world of fun. Families, of all sizes, were enjoying all the possibilities of fun. Hearing laughter and frightening screams, warned me of the experience waiting for me within the doorway to everlasting amazement. The sweet baked smell of funnel cakes swarmed into the fresh morning air. Before I knew it, my family and I were ready to enter Valleyfair, an amusement park that offers summertime fun to the maximum.
My sweat soaked shirt was clinging to my throbbing sunburn, and the salty droplets scalded my tender skin. “I need this water,” I reminded myself when my head started to fill with terrifying thoughts of me passing out on this ledge. I had never been so relieved to see this glistening, blissful water. As inviting as the water looked, the heat wasn't the only thing making my head spin anymore. Not only was the drop a horrifying thought, but I could see the rocks through the surface of the water and couldn't push aside the repeating notion of my body bouncing off them when I hit the bottom. I needed to make the decision to jump, and fast. Standing at the top of the cliff, it was as if I could reach out and poke the searing sun. Sweat dripped from my forehead, down my nose, and on its way to my dry, cracked lips which I licked to find a salty droplet. My shirt, soaked with perspiration, was now on the ground as I debated my
I’ve done some scary things before and I always had the courage and motivation to do it, but this time, my courage abandoned me and just disappeared as if it was never there. It was a cool and chilly day, but the sun was shining hard at my favorite ski resort in Lake Tahoe in December. Crisp, white snow was delicately falling from the sky and it covered the ground like a blanket. But the luminous sun was melting the snow, making it wet and slippery. The trees on the side were towering but slender with dark, brown trunks and bright green leaves. I was wearing a cumbersome jacket and a helmet and I was starting to sweat a lot in the heat. There were tons of people in thick jackets carrying skis, poles, and snowboards milling around. I was in a lengthy line of people, all waiting to go on a ski lift. The lift led to a monstrously huge hill that I was about to ski on.
Well that’s simple. It was designed way back in the 1800, for the public. The land, over 750 acres, was given from the New York State Legislator, in 1853, to create the first major landscaped park, in central Manhattan. The state held a competition of what design the park was going to have. Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the competition in 1858. The park held up well at first. People respected the land. During the early 1900’s, the park took a great downfall. Instead of it begin known for its beauty, it was known for the illegal activity that was going on. Eventually the state got together and realized they were failing on their duties. Robert Moses, the park commissioner from 1934-1960, got approved from federal funding’s, to restore most structures. Again, after he left office, the depression was also in place, the park went back down a dark path. The people lost care in the park. In 1974, park funders got management together to raise more money to restore the park once again. Latter down the road Doug Blonsley started working with a woman, named Betsey, in 1993- 2008. The park hasn’t seen any better days, than the days of today. All it took is a little care and the park is looking better than it ever have in the last 150
We finish what we start. This was the motto that kept me going during the strenuous training period for a marathon. But prior to that, I must confess, I wasn’t an athlete. I was never interested in playing sports, except for recreational badminton. During gym class, I would walk three quarters of the time when it time for the dreaded mile run. I preferred staying indoors and sitting on the couch and watch movies. The first time I had heard about a marathon training program, called Dreamfar, in my school, I thought to myself, what kind of crazy person would want to run a marathon? Never did I realize, eight months later, I would be that crazy person.
I could "snooze" as my dad urged himself to go onward towards Arizona as he