Whenever I was cautious about trying something new, my mom would always tell me one thing; “You don’t know unless you try,” I’ve used this belief my entire life. It lets me explore multiple opportunities that I would have missed. These opportunities allowed me to realize the moments I have been missing.

Over the summer, I helped out at a preschool with the kids who needed some extra learning. At first I thought it would be super crazy with kids running around all over the place, being crazy overall. I thought it would be a month of pure annoyingness, but it ended up being pretty cool. They actually opened up to us, talked to us, told us things they needed to get off their chests.  I could tell that by talking to us, they were staying on the right track, not getting in trouble. They were so joyful to be around. I found myself happy that I was helping these kids, no longer afraid of the experience.

Again in middle school, I experienced this same belief. There were multiple school dances and school holiday events. I was not very fond of going to these events thinking that I would either be made fun of or just simply be bored. I went to my first school dance in 7th grade, it was a school welcoming dance, at first I really did not want to go but my mom forced me to go anyways. I was not the happiest of the choice my mom made, but soon regretted my doubt. The dance was really fun, with music, food, and friends. My mom was right, I never thought of the dance being enjoyable.

After these two events I gained more courage to try new things. Recently this summer I went to Fire Station #2 to speak to the Captain of the Napa city Firefighter Explorer academy. I was very nervous and at first felt anxious and did not want to go to the first meeting. When I arrived at the meeting I was shy and nervous of what would happen. When the explorers were asked a question on a spanner tool, which is a tool First Responders use to loosen a male nut on a fire hydrant, I was the first one to answer correctly. I felt better about the program knowing that I can be open and talk to them. I am having a fun time at this program and hope to do it for the years to come.

I have noticed that all of these activities have made me nervous, or give me second thoughts on doing the activity, yet they have let me happy to gain new experiences. I enjoy doing these activities that I did not want to do at first. I guess my mom was right, I’d never know if I never tried.