Sometimes I forget that Jurassic Park is fiction and that there isn’t really a tropical island near Costa Rica filled with dinosaurs. And, for a moment, life is better.
I have never ridden the Jurassic park ride at Universal Studios. This is actually a source of great distress for me. You have to understand. I LOVE JURASSIC PARK! I drive a jeep with Jurassic Park stickers on the doors. The last time I was at the Pacific Science Center I screamed and ran, almost trampling children, because there were dinosaurs, bear in mind I was 28 at the time. I have a t-rex cookie jar. I love dinosaurs, I love Jurassic Park, nothing will ever be cooler. So I have a lot of feelings about the fact that I have never ridden the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios.
Not for a lack of trying.
It is on my list of “super achievable life goals.” I just haven’t achieved it yet.
When I was small, I’ve always been small so read young, my family went to Universal Studios with my grandparents and cousins. I do not remember much of that trip but I remember King Kong picking up a bus and throwing it and that the Jurassic Park ride had just opened. Oh, I wanted to go on it so badly but when we got to the line, I wasn’t tall enough. My brother and my mom went on without me and I waited with my dad for them to come back. Heartbreak. I actually do not remember how I felt at the time I just remember to this day that I wasn’t big enough to see dinosaurs.
The next time I went to Universal Studios was on a trip to Florida and this time I was in high school. I was sure to be able to ride it this time.
Alas, fate is unkind.
This time, I remember riding a really cool Spiderman ride, and the time I spent with my family singing “pave paradise and put up a parking lot” but not riding the Jurassic Park ride. Do you know why? It was closed for repairs. This is as close as I will ever come in my life to actually going to Jurassic Park and seeing dinosaurs and the door has been closed to me.
It feels kind of dumb. I honestly look at riding that roller coaster the same way that I would look at being able to go to Isla Nublar and see actual dinosaurs. Make no mistake. If Jurassic Park were a real place I would have gone. I would die because cloning dinosaurs is a bad idea, but I would definitely go.
Why do we feel this way about a creature that none of us have seen anything but their bones? These mysterious monsters from a time long forgotten. Why do I feel this way? Several years ago I took my parents to the zoo and they had a special event going on where animatronic dinosaur displays had been set up. I spent more time playing with the dinosaurs than I did watching the animals and probably more than any of the kids at the zoo that day did. I wish I could explain it. I wish I could explain the way I feel about dinosaurs. I wonder if it is has something to do with my love for all animals or humanity’s genuine love for mystery. We know almost nothing about dinosaurs, only the stories their bones tell us.
I wish I knew.
All I really know is that nothing will ever be cooler than dinosaurs.
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