Taking a Risk

Normally I tend not to come to campus when it is the weekend but there were several volunteer events that occurred and one of which took place today. I decided to randomly sign up for an event in order to get to know some new people and I am glad I did. It was a trip to the Ronald McDonald house and what we did was cleaned and sanitized toys for the children. Coming to the event, I did not know what to expect and this is not something I am used to as I usually like to plan things ahead just so that I know what is to come and what is to expect so I can prepare myself ahead of time. By doing this spontaneously, I was nervous but I knew that it would aid in my practice of improving my skills in adapting to situations.

The results were outstanding even though I had a large amount of anxiety going into the event and even had thoughts of turning around and leaving. But during the cleaning I was able to befriend other people and was able to become comfortable cleaning around others I did not know. I can tell that I have improved over time because usually it takes a lot for me to open up to others and for me to come out of my shell since I am extremely shy, especially when I am alone and not around at least one person that I know, I was able to open myself up to others more quickly. I realized that people are not scary, it is your mind placing fear into your thoughts and it prevents you from taking chances because you are scared it will not go the way you want it to go. I tend to overthink and because of this, I scare myself out of opportunities and convince myself it is better not to do it. In order to continue practicing this skill, I will continue to be more spontaneous with my decisions so that I can work on my skills on adjusting to situations when I am on my own and have no one to rely on.