Risk

"...I'd leave my apartment--after a hot shower, a cup of oatmeal, and a good cry--

and catch the campus shuttle to school. Then I'd find myself alone on the stairwell again. 

Rinse and repeat." 

That was Jasmine Star talking about her days in law school. She's sit there not because it was challenging, but because it wasn't where her heart was.

"People often assume the risk I took to start my business was not returning to law school. 

But that's far from the truth.

 I would have taken a larger risk staying in law school knowing just how unhappy I was.

Sometimes we risk our dreams for safety and comfort, 

but I was ready to risk safety and comfort for my dreams."

Fear - the thing that tells us we can't. We can't pursue what we want. We will never be as successful as _____.

I can relate to the idea that the greater risk is staying where you are unhappy. It is a greater risk in the long run to stifle that voice in us that speaks quietly, pushing us to do something else with our lives.

All of us are made intrinsically with gifts and talents. Some are more obvious than others. But when we are willing enough to stop and listen and bold enough to act - that is when we see joy and fulfillment in careers and life. Then it is not, "this is what I do..." But, "this is who I AM."

I am on that road, the road of trying to be quiet and still enough to figure out what my dream is. Once it's identified I will be ready to run towards it with all I have.

Maybe in a few years time I will be able to echo Jasmine's sentiment:

"Today whenever I eat a PB&J on wheat, I am reminded of my solitude in the stairwell, 

 knowing life will always be filled with risk...

it's simply a matter of choosing which one you'll take."

What risk are you being asked to take?