Compare and Contrast: Willingness to Take Risks.

Essay by BlackTearsCollege, UndergraduateA, May 2006

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What is considered a risk? Everyday some think risk is jumping out of an airplane while another may be simply take a leap of faith and ask another on a date.

For me, the level of willingness just to approach a stranger and say, "Hello," is slim to non-existent. My palms sweat, and I become flustered before I even make the attempt. Worries of what I'm going to say, what I should do, cloud my brain. Even worse, the possibilities of how the other person will react fill my head and cement my feet. A task like this is what I consider a significant risk.

As for my mother, to meet someone new is an everyday occurrence. Saying "Hello" and introducing herself to a complete stranger is as easy as brushing her teeth. Where I see a chance of disaster, she sees a chance to meet someone possibly vastly different from herself; or perhaps someone who shares a lot in common with her; someone with the potential to become a very close friend.

I believe my mother and I are both willing to take risks, but the types of risks we take are sometimes different and sometimes the same. My mother has been in the military for 23 years so every day she puts her life at risk to protect the freedom of our country. The situations she has had to deal with are numerous, but in some ways not unlike some of the ones I've had to deal with as a military child.

I haven't had to worry to the same degree about losing my life, but even here in Las Vegas we couldn't say the streets are trouble-free. We've both dealt with living in new places. We make new friends every time we move. I believe it's easier...