Risky Buisness

What is a risk?  This is something I have been asking myself since that day that someone told me that I was taking a risk in leaving my job to go back to school and pursue a Ph. D..  I had never really contemplated it as being a risk at all.  For me it was just an opportunity that was there and I was going to take it.  So I asked myself, why do others see this as a risk?

After some long deliberations on the questions I began to see how people could see what I was doing as risky.  It is very out of character for a man in his 40s to go back to school and leave a secure job that he has had for 10 years, while not knowing if he is going to be able to succeed in his new endeavors.  There is also the idea of leaving the hometown of mine and my wife’s’ families.  Not to mention the adjustment of going from owning a home to almost assuredly living in an apartment in a city that neither of us are familiar with.  The biggest city that either of us has ever lived in is Mt. Pleasant.  This is where we raised our children and have accumulated many relationships and memories over the years.  All of these thoughts began to burgeon on my mind.

All of these things started to change my view on what I am doing.  I have started to see and realize what people meant by taking a risk.  I am leaving everything behind that I have built up over the years to begin a new adventure in my life.  Even though it is scary and can be viewed as risky by people, this examination of the “risk” that I am taking, have led to a stronger conviction of how I always have felt about my decision.

Although many see this as a risk, I only see it as an opportunity that I have been destined to take my entire life.  I do not see it as leaving everything behind.  I see it as changing the script that has been written for me by others.  I am not stuck in one place and am able to go and flourish in the world.  I yearn for the excitement of the new city and challenges that are going to come my way.  I cannot wait for the chance to explore and make new acquaintances.  What I see as a risk is flying in a plane, others just see it as an opportunity to begin a new adventure.  Whether it is an opportunity or a risk, the only way to get somewhere it to take one of them and ride it out.