Last two weeks of high school, senior exams, senior practice breakfast, the three hour commencement mass, and the senior lock-in, plus the Lakers playoffs: all these events were zooming through my mind in my last few memorable days of high school.

It was only appropriate that while thinking of all these occasions, feeling the exciting ride of life, I was heading off to Cedar Point, a notable roller coaster park in Sandusky, Ohio, with my senior class. I have never ridden on any type of roller coaster before, so I was pretty uneasy entering the park for that reason and also because the Lakers were going to play a pivotal Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets that night, too.

Since Cedar Point is located in Ohio, I was expecting to see a mass of Cavaliers jerseys and, more specifically, tons of LeBron James jerseys. I was not looking forward to this. To my surprise, I did not see one Cavs jersey. Instead, I saw a handful of Lakers jerseys! I was so thrilled to see a good following of Lakers fans out in the Midwest. I saw tons of Bryant jerseys and a good amount of Gasol, Odom and Bynum jerseys, too. Each time I saw a purple and gold jersey, I smiled as big as when I met Sasha.

Since I was feeling in the prime of my life that day with all the excitement of the rides, adrenaline and my great class, I decided to approach the people wearing the Lakers jerseys and talk to them. I wanted to hear their opinions of the hard-fought series with the Nuggets, the swing of Game 6, Sasha, and what the media seems to be portraying as “Lakers inconsistency.”

One gentleman proudly sporting a Kobe jersey felt indeed that this series was a tough one and that every game is not going to be “a walk in the park.” He realized ups and downs are common in playoff basketball and that the Lakers are more than capable of prevailing.

Next, I saw a kid showing off another Kobe jersey and, to add to the Laker pride, he also was carrying around a Kobe basketball. This kid was bouncing off the walls with energy, so I expected some decent opinions. We talked a little about Game 5 and he thought Odom played “off-da-hook.” The kid ended saying Game 6 was all Lakers and the series would end that night. I appreciated that answer.

Lastly, I shared some words with an older man respectfully dressed in a Gasol jersey with a shirt underneath. He touched on the subject of the Lakers’ inconsistency, about which the news was making a big deal. The man agreed that, yes, the Lakers played inconsistently in two games of the series, but after each loss the Lakers responded with a forceful win. His answers reminded me of Sasha’s Twitter update after a hard loss, “Not much to say but: Our greatest glory is not in never failing but rising up every time we fail!” As for Sasha’s performance, the older gentleman said smiling, “Just keep shooting.”

After talking to all these wonderful fans, I left the park feeling extremely confident. I had a huge feeling the Lakers would be fine for the rest of the playoffs after all the positive energy from the Midwest fans. Also, on a side note, I left the park a man not afraid of roller coasters anymore! Confidence was in the air.