"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Indiana Jones Adventure. I, Sallah, shall be your tour guide through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye." 

I smiled, teeming with excitement, as I watched the video presentation where Sallah describes how we should properly sit in the car, buckle up, and made a million jokes about the Indiana Jones series. 

Indiana Jones has and will forever be my favorite ride at Disneyland for a numerous amount of reasons. I love the feel of the inside of the queue, like how they intentionally gave the walls and ceilings cracks to make it look like you were in an old, decrepit temple for real. Let's not forget the interactive part of the queue, where you can pull a rope and make a poor archaeologist fall down a well and where you can yank a pole and make the ceiling collapse. And that's just scratching the surface!

The ride itself was pure gold, and I was so looking forward to it. Except, I had a small feeling of fear. Fear of going on the ride by myself for the very first time. I was now 18 years old and had been looking forward to my family's annual Disney trip. Every year since I was 10, my parents, my brother, and my baby sister and I had taken an annual trip to Disneyland. We would ride all the rides, meet as many characters as we could, and eat all the Disney food we could (especially the Mickey Beignets!)

But this year, that didn't happen. Both my parents were busy with work, my brother was away out of state in college, and my baby sister was now 15 years old and completely turned off of Disney (she claims it's only for babies. I know, she's not that smart.) They all collectively decided they weren't going to make the annual Disney trip. I was incredibly disappointed, but didn't want the year to go by without Disneyland. 

I was able to make the drive out to Anaheim and go to Disneyland by myself. Sure, it would've been much better with my whole family the way I remembered it, but it was still Disneyland, the happiest place on earth! I was just have to go it alone. It shouldn't have been too difficult. 

And yet, standing in line, all I could remember was the happy memories all my family had on Indiana Jones. How my sister would always scream if she was close to the snake, how my brother would always try to imitate Indiana Jones, and how my parents would be holding onto each other for dear life as they were thrown about the car. I would always be happy to see everyone being happy. Now, it was just me. I was happy to be here, of course, but it all felt so lonely. Hopefully when I got on the ride, it would be better.  

I was at the front of the line, and the Cast Member motioned me to move forward to the first car. Front row, awesome! I slid inside the car and sat in the seat to the far right. This was my favorite seat because it got all the action - you can see the Indy animatronics the best, the snake animatronic comes right up to you, and you get the full effect of being tossed around the car. It's great!

I looked to the left to see who my seat buddy would be and I saw a couple holding hands and a man around my age. He had brown, curly hair and was rather tall with a tanned complexion. He was really handsome too. He could've passed for a curly-haired Indiana Jones! I was hoping that he would sit next to me, but unfortunately the couple was in front of him. Darn it. 

I looked away for a second, but saw that in my peripheral vision, the curly haired man was switching places with the couple. Now, he was next in line and they were behind him. How had that happened! I didn't care. Either way, I was happy I got to sit next to curly-haired Indiana. 

He scooted into his seat and buckled his safety belt. Then, he turned and looked at me with a charming smile. "Sorry, I saw you looking at us switching places. They wanted to be on the end for some reason, and I was happy to do it because, well, you're very pretty." He clamped a hand over his mouth. "That wasn't what I...uh...oh gosh, I'm sorry, I'm so embarrassing." He apologized. 

My cheeks were red from blushing, but I didn't mind. No guy had ever called me pretty before! "No, you're not! You're very sweet. Thank you." I stuck out my hand for him to shake. "My name is Marigold, nice to meet you." He shook my hand. "I'm Daniel, nice to meet you too." We broke the handshake and the ride vehicle started to move up. We did our seatbelt safety check and then we were on our way. 

I looked at the gold Mara statue with wonder, despite being told not to look it in the eyes. Oh well! This ride was already going to be bumpy anyways. The ride jerked on the right side, making me feel like I was almost going to fall out of my seat. I screamed and hung onto the bar in front of me, trying to steady myself as to not accidentally crash into Daniel. He was doing the same. 

We passed the room where Indiana was telling us to go ahead, and the triumphant Indiana Jones theme music began playing, followed by a terrifying soundtrack as we zoomed through he skeleton room. When one popped out next to me, I screamed and fell backwards, directly onto Daniel. Not. good! 

To my surprise, he didn't push me away. He stayed still, with his arms outstretched around me to make sure I didn't fall further and we wouldn't start a domino effect into the couple next to us.  I don't know what was making my heart pound more, the ride or Daniel. 

We went down the drop, being placed on the rickety old bridge with the fiery Mara head across the way from us, pausing for a bit so that the car could shake. Then, our car took off and we were headed for the humongous snake animatronic. I was on the right, so I was going to be the closest to it. Awesome!

We pulled up and stopped, and the snake came out right next to me. I screamed and fell back onto Daniel, who was also screaming. He put his arm over me to steady me. We looked at each other and laughed a bit as the car took off. "Sorry, I keep fa-" I screamed as we went down the other drop and towards the final scene of the ride. 

Our car stopped right below the Indiana Jones animatronic, who told us to hold on. Then, the lights came on and the big ball came hurtling towards us. Daniel still hadn't removed his arm from me. Our car jerked us all back and forth until we plunged down the big drop. We were screaming our heads off! 

Then, the car pulled past the Indiana Jones final animatronic, who mentioned something about how much he hated tourists, and towards the end of the line. We all got off and at the fork in the road, the couple went the other way, and Daniel and I went the same way. 

"Those animatronics, the speed, wow. That was amazing!" Daniel remarked. I nodded. "I know! That's why it's my favorite." He smiled. "Mine too." We walked out of the Indiana Jones ride and stood next to each other in Adventureland. "So, I guess this is it." I sighed. Daniel nodded and smiled.

"Thanks for going into the Forbidden Eye Temple with me." He stuck out his hand for me to shake again. I shook it heartily. "Thanks for making sure I didn't fall!" He laughed, and we broke the shake. 

I didn't want it to end like this. Sure, we didn't know each other well, but I got the inkling that we could become good friends. I didn't know how I would work up the courage to ask for his number or anything, until I got a brilliant idea. 

"Do you have any other plans for the day?" I asked. Daniel shrugged and shook his head. "Well, I'll be at Disneyland until closing. I came by myself, so there's really no agenda." I gasped. "I'm here by myself too!" It was his turn to gasp. "Two lonely old souls at the happiest place on earth, what are the odds?" We both laughed. 

"Well, seeing as how we both don't have any plans, want to go ride Jungle Cruise?" I pointed behind me to the Jungle Cruise attraction. He checked his watch and looked back at me, a big grin on his face. "Sure, I think it's about time for some really bad jungle puns." 

We both laughed and started walking towards the ride. "You mean AMAZING jungle puns?" He laughed. "Yes, of course." I looked up at him and smiled. 

Thanks, Indy.