Monday 10 January 2011

Risk?

Today has been a nice change of pace to life in school as I was lucky to be on a course for the whole day. It was all about school visits and how to plan and stay safe. The strange thing however, when they were talking about different issues, was that it actually started to sound like how one may plan their life. 

It got me thinking about life and love and the risks which we take. As children our risks are generally monitored to some extent (by parents, teachers, other adults etc). But then we reach an age where all of a sudden, we begin to make our own decisions and choices. Now risks are an everyday occurrence, when looking at statistics today there was evidence of at least 70 people being injured just getting out of bed in a year. It may sound silly but even from the start of a day you that you have a potential for injury/pain. There was a similar statistic for putting socks on. These are small, little everyday things and yes we laughed at how ridiculous this sounded but in the ‘big picture’ there are other risks in life which aren’t simple.
Let’s look at life:
You have various important decisions to make which are not without risk:

Job
1: Some careers you can risk your life e.g. army, firemen etc.
2: Some jobs involve long travel which obviously put you at risk from accidents.
3: Some jobs involve working with people who may harm you.
4: You may move away and it could impact on your quality of life being away from friends and family etc.

Socialising
1: How many people have become vulnerable and therefore been at risk. I myself walked for a taxi at the weekend, early morning, in a city with empty streets thinking I’d be fine after been offered to share taxi with friends but I didn’t want to inconvenience them so booked my own taxi. Not until the next day did I think- how silly?!
2: Again, if it’s a new person who you don’t know they may put you at risk.

Now these are just two examples but the one I thought about the most was that of love.
Love is an amazing thing and with the right person can complete your life (or at least that is how I view it). Now think of how amazing this is and then think of all the risks which are involved from:
Meeting people
Dating
Living Together
Being Married
Children

I have experienced a few times, in my life of 25 years, the pain and sadness which comes with taking a risk in love. However, last year I took a huge risk with my heart and it went horribly wrong. It was a risk which I didn’t plan for and just happened. One of those relationships which steam rolls you out of nowhere only to leave you clinging onto sanity when it’s passed. It has taken me a long time to get over that and reflect the situation and I have came to the conclusion that even though my heart was broke (yep – I think he actually broke my heart, it sucked) it was worth it. It has taken me a long time to get here but I am now starting to see the positive things which came about like deciding I  want to do work away, try new things and overall just be brave in my life. This man had confidence and when I was with him I felt it too and he always made me feel worthy and that has stuck even through the dark times after he had to leave and go back home. So for this I am thankful. Do I wish he’d not finished his contract here? Well of course ... it was an amazing, short lived, passionate relationship but I now have a renewed sense of myself. 

So basically, after this long winded blog I feel like I want to say to you all...take the risk in love!! If you end up hurt or sad there will be a way back and it will make you stronger. What I found interesting was the following quote we were given today which I believe goes against pretty much everything we’re taught as kids:

“Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.” ~ Sir John Harvey
 
In my case with the relationship, I didn’t plan it, I didn’t deem myself not good enough from the start. I was myself and through planning would have been someone very different. The failure was not something anticipated but my strength since has grown and now I am starting to see it for what it was....a learning experience.

After all, even out the classroom we never stop learning. Life is constantly showing us new things and do you know what... sometimes the best thing in your life comes from a risk which if you’d planned and evaluated as to what could go wrong, you wouldn’t have done!

However, there are still some things which just aren't worth the risk:
Err...Not quite worth the risk!



I’m pretty sure some of you out there have taken some amazing risks? Feel free to share!


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