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By James Gardner

Clark County Public Library

With National Roller Coaster Day on Aug. 16, I find myself pondering my own experiences with them. I fondly remember roller coasters, but I wouldn’t call myself a roller coaster enthusiast. That is the term for people who will ride the front and back of a roller coaster to see definitively how it ranks while also throwing out words like airtime and helixes. In America, they even have a dedicated club called the American Roller Coaster Enthusiasts (or ACE), and their website is www.aceonline.org. I am not a member of this club, and there are many roller coasters that I have not personally ridden. The closest I’ve come to riding a roller coaster in the last few years are the POV videos on Youtube.

Despite all that, roller coasters hold a special place in my heart because I was afraid of them when I was a child. It is a ride designed to throw a human body into various directions, traveling at speeds that feel too fast actually to be safe. I could handle the Scrambler, maybe even the Monster, if its spidery metal arms didn’t go too high, but roller coasters looked like anything but a good time.

I was an anxious child, to be honest, and I am familiar with the gnawing teeth of anxiety. But between the peer pressure (good peer pressure), the desire not to inconvenience anyone, and the desire not to be afraid, I decided to risk it. And I enjoyed it. Do I ride roller coasters multiple times on the same day? Not with the lines the way they are. But I learned to savor my experiences on those amusement/death machines. I also learned that fear is mainly in the mind. Hence, why I tend to like scary things and why I like to be scared. I like the exhilaration of facing my fear.

So what’s the moral of this story? Not necessarily to ride more roller coasters because neither ACE nor any local or national theme park chain is paying me anymore. But it’s always good to challenge yourself. Whether it’s riding the tallest, fastest roller coaster in North America or taking up a new hobby when you lack confidence, try something that scares you.

Or you can also try these less scary things at the library (we won’t judge):

• Write Out There!, the library’s writing group, meets Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 6:00 p.m. James Gardner and Rachel Hamm welcome writers of all kinds to get some awesome writing prompts to get you started and we can also do workshops where other writers can share their work and get feedback. Bring anything you’re working on, or just bring paper, pencil, or laptop to do some writing and have some fun.

• This week’s Kentucky Picture Show stars Katherine Hepburn as an American spinster whose dream of romance finally becomes a bittersweet reality when she meets a handsome–but married–Italian man while vacationing in Venice. The movie starts at 2 p.m. Popcorn and snacks will be provided.

• There will be a Friends of the Library meeting on Thursday, Aug. 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the Brooks Community Room. The Friends of the Library had been an integral part of the library until about 2013. Most of the organization has emphasized raising funds for summer reading programs and activities for young readers.

• On Saturday, Aug. 19, at 2 p.m., the Winchester Black History & Heritage Committee’s Between the Lines Book Club will be discussing “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Richardson. This best-selling historical fiction story is about one of eastern Kentucky’s last living Blue People in Appalachia and the healing power of the written word. Copies of the book are available at the library’s front desk.

• Join us on Saturday, Aug. 19, for our Saturday Puzzle Swap where you can swap puzzles! Just bring a puzzle (that has all its pieces) to take a puzzle.