UNITED STATES—Patience, it is something that not many Americans have and I must admit, I’m part of that list unfortunately. Recently, my travels took me to an amusement park that I am super fond of: Cedar Point. However, on this particular day, I had no idea that the park would be so crowded that the park was not prepared in any fashion to handle the overload of patrons.

One, we decided to go on a Saturday. That might have been a bad idea, but again its October and the summer season for the park has ceased, but when it comes to a great thrill, adrenaline junkies don’t take breaks. Man, the weather was warm, so that was the first strike against the family. Next, it took nearly 30 minutes to get to the entrance to get to the parking lot, yes the parking lot. For all the years that I have been coming to Cedar Point, not ONCE have we ever waited to get into the parking structure. So there goes strike two.

After driving for about 15 minutes to find a parking spot, we finally get to the entrance of the park. Good thing we purchased our tickets in advance, because they were way cheaper than what the price would have been at the door. However, when asked about the fast-express tickets (this allows you to get on the rides a lot quicker than waiting in the normal line), we learned purchasing those tickets would not have that much of an impact. Ok, so strike three.

We got to the park at 4 p.m. and we were planning to stick around until closing at midnight. However, I never expected during that time frame we’d only be able to get on 4 rides, yes 4 freaking rides. Was I pissed? Absolutely! I mean you’re telling me it’s a 2-3 hour wait to get on almost EVERY single ride at the park, even the ones that are so old on a normal day no one aims to ride them. Yeah, it was the most frustrating thing in the world. Why? I was hoping to spend 20-30 minutes tops waiting in line to get on each ride, not 2 hours in the scorching heat, with nothing to drink and a bunch of sweaty people.

Ugh, my patience is shot, my feet was killing me, it was going from dusk to dawn and the bugs were also about to become a pest. After waiting for about 20-25 minutes for a ride that I thought was geared towards kids (I was quite surprised by how fun the ride actually was), I was ready to head to the next location. The problem lied in rather it would be smart to walk around the park to find the location of a ride that didn’t have a long wait time or just get on whatever we could possibly get on.

At this point, I’m starving for food, but guess what? The FOOD LINES are an hour plus wait! What the heck is going on today? The wait to ride is long, the wait to get food is long, the wait to get in the bathroom is long, perhaps this was one bad day to go to the park, or perhaps my level of patience has run quite short. It’s probably the latter. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older or perhaps, I’m just so used to getting things right away without having to wait. Yes, as Americans we’re so use to getting our way that when we don’t we lose all composure and go into a frenzy.

I might not be the most patient person, but I’m starting to realize that it is a skill that I have to develop more so that I’m not stressing out about things that aren’t worth stressing about. Yes, it might be easier said than done, but the more you’re placed in those situations the more you learn. Hey, I must admit, I waited in lines for nearly 6 hours, got on 4 thrill rides and those were the best 6-8 minutes of my life. Sounds crazy, but this is one time where patience paid off, because for a thrill-seeker like myself dropping 325 feet from a rollercoaster was a thrill-a-minute!