THE BIGGEST GAMBLE IN LIFE IS…LIFE

The Biggest Gamble in Life is … Life BY LUKE FINNELL ‘25

Being adventurous is always somewhat of a gamble, and depending on the situation, the simple act of deciding to take a risk can leave a profound impact on your physical health, and/or anything else in your possession that you are putting in jeopardy . These two examples, when I took a risk and when I played it safe, illustrate how a decision affected my life . Once I took a risk when a few friends and I were out skiing . We had just done the parkour course, and I thought it would be easier to go off the jumps . We raced to the lift line and eventually got a chair . Once we were seated, we all agreed to jump off the big jump in the middle of the course . After what felt like an eternity, the lift propelled us up and over the massive slope, and I launched off the unloading dock . With my skis slicing through the snow, and the cold breeze brushing against my face, I was at the parkour place in no time . We regrouped, and I took off towards the jump . I zoomed past a family of skiers, spraying them with snow as my skis dashed from side to side . As I skied closer and closer to the jump, I began to feel regret; this was not a good idea, I was moving too fast, and it was too late to turn away . Ten seconds away . . . my heart starts beating faster . Five seconds . . . my stomach starts to turn in knots . One second away . . . here goes nothing . The jump launched me high in the air, and I felt like a cow jumping over the moon . It seemed as if I had been in the air for ages, while in reality, it was a split second filled with a mix of terror and joy . SMACK . . . was all you could hear after my body landed face-first into the snow . I waited a moment before getting back up, and my friend helped me get out of the center of the trail so I would not get trampled . My back ached, and my finger was throbbing, but somehow I got my skis back on and made it down the hill . That was the end of skiing for the season . A later X-ray showed that I had a broken thumb . It also showed that I will never do a ski jump again . Quite the opposite happened on a day when I played it safe . It was a beautiful day for skiing, not too cold nor too warm . I could feel the snow crunch under my large boots as my friends and I walked to the ski lift . Everything was going great: the slopes were good, and we had already done five runs . As my friends and I hopped off the ski lift for our sixth run, one of them noticed a tiny path in the woods that would require weaving through hundreds of trees . Immediately, my friend James, who rides a snowboard, waddled over to go down the path; he signaled for us to join him on the trail, even though it looked very suspicious, as trees were filling up the entire “path .” This was not an actual trail on the mountain; James would be going off course and off another trail . James eventually took the path, leaving us either to follow him or take the designated trail . I could tell that my other friend, Henry, had mixed opinions about it, but did not want to risk injury . I decided I was not going to ski down the “new” trail and would take the designated one . Henry chose the same path, and by doing this, we protected our safety and would not risk ourselves for one trail .

These two examples, one when I took a risk and one when I played it safe, are times when anyone should most likely play it safe . In the first example, I took the risk of going off the ski jump (when I had never done it before)--a bad idea . I was putting myself at huge risk and ended up breaking my thumb . Compare that to the time I played it safe . They are both very dumb ideas but the example of declining to ski inside a forest is much worse than going off a ski jump . Many people go off ski jumps, and it is safe with enough know-how and practice Although sometimes taking a risk is worth it, other times such a gamble leaves scars physical and mental . My taking the risk to do something new was not a good idea, yet you will never learn if you don’t put yourself out there and try something new .