Before I started reading the Risk A Day Blogs, I never really thought about the choices and decisions I was making within the concept of “risk”. I guess if I thought at all about those choices and decisions, I thought of them as getting something done, a means to get from point A to point B, but as a risk? Risk never crossed my mind.
Now that the word “risk” has became more of a fixture in my vocabulary, I have begun first to recognize some of the risks I have taken and then to celebrate them for being risks worth taking. I’d like to share a few with you, and while these risks have all had positive outcomes, I know as I get better at this, i’ll most likely find a few that didn’t have such great outcomes.
The summer between my Junior and Senior years in High school, I was presented with an opportunity to take a trip to Europe. My wonderful parents gave me the option to use my college fund to finance this trip. Of course I went on the trip! It was possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity, but that’s where my focus was, on the opportunity, not on the risk. What if I had gotten homesick? What if the trip hadn’t lived up to my expectations? What if I began to regret not being able to zoom off to college with my classmates? Of course, at the time I didn’t consider any of these things, I went boldly off on my adventure, and I loved every minute of it. I still would not trade the trip to Europe for anything.
Jump ahead about a year and half, and I’m getting married. The idea that getting married right after high school was risky never crossed my mind. Even though conventional wisdom stacked the odds against us staying married, and even though we did see the relationships of many of our friends who also married young fall apart, here we are, 30 years later and still going strong. I won’t say it’s always been easy, but it’s been good, it’s been great, and we grew up together. We’ve learned to handle good times and bad times. We’ve grown and we’ve grown stronger as individuals and as a couple.
As children began to enter the picture, I chose to leave the “working” world to become a “Domestic Goddess”. Once again, I never gave the risks associated with this a second thought. What if I lost my identity as a separate person? What about the loss of the second income? What about the lack of consistant adult contact? Okay, honestly, losing the second income was hard to get used to, and the lack of consistant adult contact probably caused me to occasionally drive some people crazy, but I still wouldn’t change a thing. Our children managed to grow up with little drama or trauma, and have become wonderful hard working adults whom we are very proud of.
When our children became school age, college suddenly became very important to me. Still I never thought about risk. I could have flopped, failed or not finished. I had a husband and two young children who needed my time and attention. I got through it though, with a 4.0 GPA, with the love and support of my wonderful husband and family.
My risk this month is to keep working on recognizing the risks I am taking, and to celebrate (and maybe once in awhile mourn) them.
Helen Medve is recently retired and is currently trying to figure out where her life will take her next. She wears many hats: wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, sister, ex-professional person, friend. She is excited about where life will take her next, and invites you along on her journey.
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What a beautiful post! Thank you for naming those life experiences as “risks” and acknowledging that there was courage involved in each, even if you didn’t know it at the time. I can use that perspective in my own life.
Carolyn’s right, Helen – beautiful! I also love that I get to know you a little better through this post – also a risk you are taking. See, they’re everywhere!