Lauren Brill
Paige Armstrong
Rachel Boisjolie, Editor-in-chief
April 19, 2012 • 262 views
Filed under Student Spotlights, Top Stories
There is nothing else except for this moment. All of your senses are focused on the now, the air pressing down on your skin, the tense shifting of those around you, the large tracks of metal ahead. Blood pulses through your veins. Your heart races, flutters, stops. One last deep breath, then nothing. Just nothing. Nothing until that jolt.
For freshman Lauren Brill, that jolt, that moment, is her ultimate thrill. “I’m an adrenaline junkie,” she said. While also an avid soccer player, chasing adrenaline is Brill’s favorite pastime.
Adrenaline rush—the term for that ‘I’m on the top of the world and nothing can stop me’ excitement ride. It’s what Brill gets when she goes to Hershey Park and rides her favorite roller coaster, Storm Runner.
Before she gets on Storm Runner, Brill feels “just anticipation,” not the typical fear one might feel. That’s intense adrenaline-love, especially knowing the facts about the ride. Going from zero to 72 miles per hour in two seconds, Storm Runner is the biggest, baddest coaster in Hershey Park. In no time at all, you’re suddenly 18 stories high, overlooking the park for only an instant—if you’re brave enough to keep your eyes open—before the coaster plummets to the ground and your stomach plummets to your feet. At the end of the one minute ride, the gravity-defying experience leaves you disoriented and stumbling.
Some may find this terrifying. Brill sees only excitement.
“[Roller coasters] are kind of addicting. Like, you’ll get on one and want to do another,” she said.
Of course roller coasters aren’t everything. For Brill, it’s adrenaline, pure and simple. In fact, her unofficial bucket list contains the next step up on the adrenaline scale—skydiving.
But for now, Brill depends on her summer trips with her dad or friends to amusement parks for her fill of adrenaline. After the ride, all she has left to say is: “I want to do it again.”
