Allison Feldman (Sky)
March, 2007

 
I’ll admit I don’t have the greatest story (it’s not particularly special or unique or anything), but I thought I’d share it anyway to prove just how awesome CF is, and how much it means to me.

When my CoasterForce wristband came in the mail early last December, I was ecstatic. I had won it in one of the Christmas Competitions, and it had arrived much sooner than expected. I immediately took it out of the packaging (of course, after reading the enclosed letter from Ian), and after a little difficulty, got it on. Now, looking down at it once again, it brings back all of the memories I’ve had because of this website, and everything it’s helped me with.

Ironically, I used to be scared to death of roller coasters – even just a mine train or wild mouse would scare the daylights out of me. I was proud of myself when I managed to hold my hands up on the final drop (which is the biggest) of the Dahlonega Mine Train, which isn’t really saying much. But the technical aspects of roller coasters still amazed me. I remember looking across part of the park and seeing Ninja one time, and just staring in awe at it. One day, after riding a roller coaster simulator that flipped upside-down, I realized I had no reason to be afraid. I quickly became obsessed – researching coasters, analyzing pictures, following construction, memorizing facts… anything, really. In the summer of 2002, I finally got on my first “real” coaster – the Georgia Scorcher. I knew immediately I had found my new passion.

It was around this time that I decided to try and find other people who also love coasters. It took me a while before I found an enthusiast community that I could really feel like a part of. I think one of the first sites I joined was themeparkcritic.com, but the people there seemed very accusing about my ride ratings. So I continued to search, and I remembered CoasterForce and how I had been on the site before (I know I printed out the sites coaster terminology at one point). The forums seemed really nice, so I joined as SFOGirl.

I guess I was your typical CF noob – I had bad grammar/punctuation/spelling, and I thought I knew so much more than I did. Eventually, I became more active on the forums, even though I rarely had any of those evil Kudo points. I was never extremely active, but I suppose I did my share. I entered in some photo contests (but was never very successful), entered the Choice Piece of Ass competition (and was pretty surprised when I got PM’s from a few guys about it), I earned the nickname “Six Flags Over Girl” from Mack… being on the site really allowed me to express myself, and learn so much more about something I really loved.

Time passed, and I later changed my name on the site to Tomboy (because, go figure, I was a tomboy at the time). By this time, I had made a good bit of friends on the site that I talked to on a regular basis – Homer, Scott101, and Shaft, to name a few. After a while later, CF had that dreaded reboot, and I was so bored during the time the site was down. I kept constantly refreshing the page to see if the forums were back up yet. Soon enough, they were, and I signed up this time as Sky (taken from a character in a story being written by my boyfriend at the time).

At one point, I had stopped posting for awhile, for some reason or another. But of course, like most everyone else who’s “left”, I came back soon after. Even now, I don’t post very much – I’m more of a lurker. I read through a lot of the topics that are posted, but I tend to hold my opinions back for whatever reason. It’s just how I am, I suppose.

CF has helped me not just with coasters, but actually in the rest of my life as well. (Is it just me, or is this starting to sound like a school assignment? Ah well.) When I come home to many CFers being online for me to talk to, it makes me so happy knowing they’re there. I’m not afraid to show my coaster obsessions anymore, either – I truly feel myself when showing off my passion. Probably one of the coolest things to happen through the site is that I’m now going out with a fellow, well-established CFer – CedarPoint6. We’re now able to hang out on a fairly regular basis, and probably every singe time, coasters or CF come up at some point in conversation. It’s pretty hilarious to show how lame we are when it comes to roller coasters (as well as acting stupid playgrounds… but that’s a different story). It’s a cool feeling when you can share your obsession with someone who obsesses over it just as much (or even more, when it comes to Brian).

Never did I think when I joined CoasterForce all those years ago just how big a part of my life it would become. Isn’t it kinda crazy how much one website can affect you?