Choice are tough to make and as teenagers you are required to figure out what it is we want to do with your life after high school.  Many times there are a lot of options to choose from when you leave and go out into the real world. In this ever-shifting world, opportunities come and go very quickly and decisions must be made as soon as possible. Many times risk and chances need to be taken to point us in the right direction, and sometimes after taking the risk that was so dreaded you realize that life might not be exactly how you see it and your entire viewpoint changes in a matter of moments. Have you ever sat and thought about what it is you want to do with your life, and how you are going to get there? Have you ever drawn out a map in your mind and prayed to God that it will work out in good time? Ever thought about risks that might be worth taking and remember all the risks you regret not taking? I had one of those moments when I suddenly realized I have no idea what I wanted to do in my life. That moment when I realized I needed to look into career options and college tours so I could find the right college for me. I needed to take a risk in life and try some new things. I was sitting in the quiet red carpeted hallway after school talking to my friend Abby while we waited for her sister to be done with her math test. We were both looking up funny pictures on the internet to pass the time most of these pictures involved animals since we both like animals. The halls had been quiet for at least a half an hour now, but smell of cooked meat from the foods class that day still lingered in the air. Sitting here talking to Abby got me thinking about things I wanted to do in my life. I  thought about going to a school of art or joining the military, but I hadn't made a definite decision. I thought about whether I wanted to settle down and start a family someday and whether I should ask out the gorgeous brunette girl with the most tranquil eyes I had ever seen sitting next to me. After all isn't life all about taking a chance and seeing where it takes you? After all none of us know how our decisions will affect our future and how taking a risk might change everything in a moment. I did ask Abby out and we become close friends even though it didn't go as planned; this is one of those split second decisions that changed my life, one of those risks that was worth taking. in my head I heard the lyrics to Frankie Ballard’s song Young and Crazy “
One day, I'll slow and lay down,
Spend my weekends in a swing out on the wraparound.
Oh but these days, I'm on a mission
To get these wild oats out of my system.
Yeah I might stay out all night,
I've gotta do a little wrong so I know what's right.
I wanna sit out on the porch
Telling stories 'bout my glory days when I'm pushing eighty.
How am I ever gonna get to be old and wise
If I ain't ever young and crazy?”
Crazy risks are meant to be taken in our youth years to set up our future.

There was plans for me to go to basic combat training in the summer of 2015. I had been talking to a recruiter for months and thought everything was going good, but everything was not as it seemed. I never got enlisted into the National Guard that summer, instead I had the best summer of my life. Many of our plans can be changed by the things that happen in our lives and at the end of all the mess and confusion we can look back and thank God for what happened because there is no way we could have ever planned out such an amazing turn of events.  I work at a local grocery store and enjoyed stocking the shelves during that great summer, but the part of the summer that was amazing and well worth the waiting was getting to hang out with my crush Abby. You see, I had never asked a girl out or told them that I even liked them before the school year was about to end. Telling her that I have a crush on her ended up being the best decision of my year. It was one of those decisions that felt right, but put butterflies in my stomach at the same time. It was a good decision because she taught me so many things and kept me looking at options the entire summer.
The first thing she taught me is to do pray when something feels right befor doing it, trusting in God to provide a solution to problems and one of the problems was finding the courage to tell her how I  felt but it also taught me how to find courage to do more then just ask someone out, it helped me talk to my recruiter and build a plan to get my enlistment back on track. These were things I had trouble actually accomplishing before we became good friends, but afterwards I decided I would listen to the  advice given to me and talk to my recruiter. When Abby and I first started hanging out, a lot of my friends would pressure and encourage me to ask her out, but I didn't feel comfortable doing so, until one day it was like something clicked and I decided it would be a good idea. I think this was God's hand at work because truthfully I never saw any of their coming and I suddenly found myself lost in thought about what I should do next in both these situations, but because of the friendship that was started that summer I was able to help Abby with her school assessments that she was doing online, I didn't have to do much mostly searching words and finding definitions medical terms. Helping her brought our friendship even closer but it also brought me back to my interest in the medical field and one of the things I want to learn is emergency medical procedures because who knows what might happen in any given moment of my life that these skills might just save mine or someone else's life. I still think about some of the things I want to accomplish in life and I Would never have been motivated to do any of these things if I had not a risk and asking out the girl of my dreams. So risks are certainly worth taking I remember when I first started Strength and Conditioning class with Mr.Seymour he told us “Write down your Goals down now because you will never strive to accomplish them unless you have something to remind you of what they are, and someday you will look back and be proud of the goals you have accomplished.” and those words apply to every situation in life, so find things that are worth taking risks at and set them as goals in your life and see what happens it may not be the perfect picture that you imagined but maybe it's close and maby just maby you can push things along to get to that picture that goal because I  know in my life because of my decision I got a friendship that I thought would never happen and if I keep trying who knows with God's help it might turn into something more than a friendship someday and I will set that as a goal in my life because it is worth the hard work to get to something greater that seems impossible, so remember you are only young and crazy once make it worthwhile ask out your crush or do something you think is crazy.