When is a risk worth taking?

The other day, I was faced with a decision.  It wasn’t a major one; I just had to decide 
if I wanted to attend a meeting.  This meeting was a collaborative meeting to present some 
work that was done from a committee.  

I hesitated.

This was not the kind of meeting that I was used to because it was a group of people 
I had never worked with before and the task was a bit unfamiliar to me.  The meeting 
would take place during school hours and it required making sub plans and finding a 
sub for a portion of the day. (Getting a sub at all is a challenge, but finding one for a 
half day is even harder!)

Oh, and I don’t like new things.

I don’t like new situations, not knowing where to go, not knowing who the players will
be and not being certain of my role in something.  This meeting was not exactly within 
my comfort zone, BUT I really want to stretch myself professionally and be a part of 
things that I have not participated in before.  

So this was a bit of a conundrum.  On the one hand, I wanted to take a TINY risk 
and attend this meeting to see what it was all about. On the other hand, it would be a 
challenge logistically and I was kind of okay with not taking the risk to try something new.  

I was stuck.

Sometimes, when I want an alternate perspective, I’ll ask a student.  This is mostly for 
my own entertainment, not some weird, co-dependent teacher stuff.  Anyway, I 
presented the facts above to my student.  

Her response: “Well, are you proud of your work?”

“Well, yeah, I am proud of it, actually.”

“Well, then you should go!”

Of course, I reminded her of the logistical problems: I didn’t have a sub yet, it’s hard to 
get a sub, I didn’t have any lesson plans ready for a sub.

“Well, then just have a teacher who has no class teach your class.  People do it all 
the time.  And you can just give a test or something.  That’s what you do when you have 
a sub anyway.”

It seemed so simple.  And really, it WAS that simple.  

If I was proud of my work, I should be there.   If I wanted to be there, it could be 
figured out.  

And so it was… I wanted to be there and so I was there!

So what are you working on?  Are you proud of it?  What obstacles will you overcome 
to bring it to the world?