Everything We Want in Life is Right Outside Our Comfort Zone

Today I went to Kennywood....again. But this time, I went with different people. I went with my friends Jacob and Sarah (we all went to middle school together, and Jacob and I now go to the same school).
I didn't know what I really expected from this trip. I knew that Sarah was afraid of heights, so there was no way that she would go on a roller coaster ever, but I didn't really know what I expected out of Jacob. I guess I assumed he wouldn't like roller coasters either, so I was preparing myself for a day of looking at these rides and not getting to go on them.
That's not what happened.
Jacob, at the beginning, was willing to go on a ride called "The Racer" because he had been on it before and was willing to try it again. He also said that he was willing to try other roller coasters, but if he wanted to go on the "Phantom's Revenge" and this was a BIG if, then we'd have to work up to that point (the Phantom's Revenge is the biggest ride at Kennywood). Every roller coaster would have to get more and more intense. We started with the merry-go-round.
After we got off of the merry-go-round, we headed toward The Racer. The Racer isn't my favorite ride at Kennywood, mostly because it doesn't go high and doesn't give you the butterflies in your stomach. But we went on it anyway. The line only had about twenty people in it, but while we were waiting, Jacob got more and more nervous about getting on this roller coaster. He asked all of the questions, "why am I here?""why am I doing this?" and "what if I die?" but eventually got on the Racer, and what do you know, he loved it so much that he wanted to do it again. I was happy that he liked the ride. It meant that I could probably get him to go on more intense roller coasters.
We stopped at the Potato Patch and got some fries. Kennywood is famous for it's french fries. Sarah then proceeded to accidentally dump a whole lot of salt on my fries, and I had to put a lot of ketchup on them so they wouldn't seem as salty as they really were.
I then convinced Jacob to get on the Thunderbolt, a ride that is a little more intense than the Racer. It's pretty similar though. It's just a tad bit bigger. He then asked the questions, "why am I here?""why am I doing this?" and "what if I die?" He proceeded to ask the questions multiple times. When we got on it though, he loved it, and of course, we had to go do it again.
After that, we got some food, and then we had to decide what we were going to ride next. By this time, Jacob had agreed to go on the Phantom's Revenge. He was just absolutely terrified of how high it went. We were debating whether to go on The Exterminator or the Phantom. Jacob was still a little unsure, but I told him we were going on the Phantom and headed toward the entrance of the ride. I didn't expect it to work, but he followed me and we got in line. Sarah waited with us for about half of the time, but there's this one part in the line where you have to stand on a little bride overlooking the path that leads to another section of the park, and she didn't want to be somewhere that high.
This time the questions of "why am I here?""why am I doing this?" and "what if I die?" were said much much more often. Then there was constant babbling about I don't even know what, and then I said something that I wish I would have said earlier in the day. I told him that everything we want in life is right outside our comfort zone. I paraphrased it, but it was a quote I had on my calendar last month, and I thought it was appropriate at the time. I guess that calmed him down a bit. But we got on the ride after about half an hour of waiting. I love that ride. It's so much fun. Jacob liked it too, and of course, we had to go ride it again.
Yes, everything we want in life is right outside our comfort zone. We should all keep challenging ourselves to do new things. I know that when I'm ready to climb my hoodoo, I'll be standing at the bottom, looking up, and thinking about how crazy I am for doing this. I might even think about not doing it. But I won't walk away, because I know that when I get to the top, I will see the most beautiful view ever.