Sunday, April 29, 2012

Courage


Photo by: Richard Juarez


"People who are good at taking risks continually seek out and find meaning in what tests them. They embark on risky activities knowing that what they are doing makes sense to them at a very deep level of their being." -John Graham


Courage, as defined by John Graham, is facing what scares you, including risks that test your spirit as well as your body. In the book Outdoor Leadership, John Graham focuses a whole chapter on courage and shows how having this quality can help you conquer any risk and positively influence your life.

As I finished reading the chapter, I realized that my classmates and I, who chose to stay in Senior Seminar, have courage. We took on a risk. We accepted the challenge to complete a senior project while handling many other important things during our senior year. This risk is scary because of having to sacrifice other things in order to reach your end product and even having the possibility of failing, but we stuck to the project because we find a meaning in what we are doing. Whether it is composing music or guiding young women, we are doing it because it is our passion.

As I realized this, I remembered the whole point of this senior project, to find a passion and take a risk by developing a project around your passion, and this is exactly what we have been doing.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, the whole point of the senior project was as you mentioned, "to find a passion and take risk". We all took the initiative to not give up and continue with this project. We knew there were obstacles that we had to overcome, but as the year comes to an end and the project to a conclusion we see that we've overcome some obstacles. This project has been a great experience for every single one of us. We found new passions and are now considered risk takers. There is a meaning to everything we do, and this project is one of the biggest one yet. We get to open up to others. You've done so well Richard.

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  2. We are growing and expanding; I love the feeling of accomplishment. I mean we are almost done and to look back at how we started is best thing, for example, your picture makes me think about climbing a mountain and how difficult it was to reach the top but once your on top you get to see all your accomplishments. That's how I view our projects. It took courage, determination, and the will for taking a risk. I completely agree with John Graham, taking this risk was something I knew I was the only one that could determine the out come. We could have stuck with it but later given up but we didn't; we fought through obstacles and negativity, at times, but we are about to reach the top of the mountain and time will come when we will look down and see what we have done.

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  3. I love what you all have to say here!

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  4. Hey Richard! Looks like I'm a little late to the party, but I was looking through your blog and I'm thrilled that you were inspired by Woods Project / NOLS to share your love of the outdoors with others. Continue to be inspired and to inspire - your personality and enthusiasm are contagious! I hope you are doing well. Best regards, Amulya

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