My entire life I have struggled with anxiety. And as I have gotten older It’s becoming easier and easier to deal with. For me anxiety can look like, shaking or having a stomachache, it could even be just a foggy feeling or being overwhelmed. Throughout the World Race, there are lots of things that could cause anxiety. All the change and culture, can make it easy to feel overwhelmed. 

When you get accepted to the race, you receive an advisor to help you out on your journey. My current advisor is Carly, she checks up on me and gives me goals to make this adventure a little less difficult. One of the things we talked about was how my anxiety affects my life. One of the goals she has given me is leading up to the Race, I have to do things that scare me to prepare me for this crazy new trip. 

That being said, roller coasters are not my thing. I can ride some, specifically the ones that don’t go super high and where my feet stay below me. Having three younger siblings, that love roller coasters and have kings island passes is not my dream situation. So this past time we went to Kings Island, my brothers wanted to ride Banshee and wanted me to ride it with them. 

If you don’t know what Banshee is feel free to look up a video. But i will try to paint the picture for you. It is a record-breaking inverted roller coaster that goes 167 feet in the air. It has a major drop and LOTS of situations where my feet are towards the sky. My initial reaction was that there was no way that I would ride that, I would rather do literally ANYTHING else. 

But after some time and a lot of persuading from my family members, I decided to do it. I was not excited and I made my brother promise to let me hold onto his arm. I got on the ride, held on for dear life, Screamed as loud as possible and DID NOT open my eyes. I did A LOT of talking to Jesus too, praying that the ride wouldn’t get stuck and that I wouldn’t fall off. But I DID IT. And I couldn’t be more proud. 

Even if you love Roller Coasters, i hope that this story can help you in some way. For me it was a reminder that no matter how scared I am, Or how tight I hold on, God tells me that it's okay to close my eyes and that he will get me safely where I need to be. 

Here's a picture of our adventurous ride!

With lots of love, 

Delaney