When I was younger and working on amusement park rides for my summer job, I used to get asked if it was hard to learn how to operate the different rides. I was just laugh and shake my head. But like a magician, I never revealed the secret. Until now! Are you ready for this? Almost every ride I ever worked on operated this way:
Get people loaded, press the button to start the ride and keep holding in the button until the ride stops. Then let go. If you accidentally let go of the button early but it seems like the ride is long enough, fine. If it was too early into the ride, quickly press the button again and just let people have an extra long ride. How long did it take you to read that? 20 Seconds? Because that’s about how long it take to learn how to operate a ride.
There were nuances to what I did. I knew how to clean up bodily fluids from a ride (little kids poop, pee and puke a lot), handle a lost child and convince a parent that I would indeed save their child’s place in line if they would just puh-lease take them to the restroom rather than telling little Johnny or Suzy to hold it until the ride is over.
I entertained myself by enjoying some awesome people watching (in the mean way) and also seeing kids having fun. There was one day at the park sponsored by AAA that was called (or, at least, we called) Orphan Day. That sounds terrible now so I am sure there was a nicer name. But on that day all of these kids at orphanages and in foster care got to come to the park for free. I promise you, they had a blast. Their chaperones, notsomuch. Watching those kids experience pure pleasure, which was painted so clearly across their faces, was wonderful.
I remember one day seeing a little girl ride a child’s version of The Whip. She was clearly undergoing chemo treatments and what remained of her hair just flew in the breeze created by the ride. But she had this big grin on her face and none of whatever else she was going through mattered.
I try to remind myself of those moments when I’m having days where I feel like a robot just churning through tasks. We all have them. But I used to have a job that could have pretty much been replaced by a robot (I mean, pressing a button?!?) and there was still this small part of it that made it all worth it.
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