Leap of Faith
Teens Taking the Plunge Beyond Comfort
My 7-year-old daughter surprised me one day at our community swimming pool when she told me she wanted to jump off the diving board in the deep end. Despite her fear, she was determined to conquer it, and I wholeheartedly supported her. With a careful approach (which is so typical of her), she asked me to hold a noodle in the water for safety. After quite some hesitation (to the point where I really thought she would turn around and walk off the diving board), she took the leap, jumped in the pool, and gripped the noodle tightly as she swam back to the edge, her confidence soaring. Like many times before when trying something new (e.g. going down a big slide, trying the new zip line at a local park, or learning to ride a bike), she immediately wanted to repeat the experience, spending hours mastering the dive until she could do it without assistance.
This experience got me thinking about how important it is for us to get out of our comfort zone once in a while to help us see what we are capable of, to seize opportunities that may not come back to us, to develop new skills, and mold us into the kind of people we want to be. I have seen too many adults have a hard time getting out of their comfortable lives to try new things…from the small stuff like changing a hairstyle (I know many people who have had the same hairstyle for over 20 years) to bigger things like moving to a new country or changing jobs or even careers. My own experience has shown me that the more I get out of my comfort zone, the more comfortable it becomes and this has shaped the trajectory of my life. As an adult, I’ve done so many things that scare me…so many things where I didn’t know what the outcome would be. From moving across the world to a country I had never been to or spoke the local language to developing and facilitating a workshop for women’s rights advocates to starting my own business, each step has been a testament to the transformative power of courage, resilience, and determination.
But instead of waiting till we are full on into adulthood to take risks and get out of our comfort zones, why not start at a younger age so that we can build a solid foundation of resilience and adaptability, making it second nature to embrace challenges and thrive amidst uncertainty as we journey through adulthood?
If supported, young people can do amazing things and can move past their fears and uncertainty. From Shermin who moved from Canada to Afghanistan after university to get some experience working in a rural healthcare setting before going to medical school (and who ended up staying on longer than planned and has been a doctor for many years), to Nolan, who invited his grandfather to watch his recent soccer game (and this from a teen who only let his mother ever come to games because he didn’t think he was a good enough player), it has been an honor to encourage and support many teens in taking the plunge into the unknown and growing immensely from those experiences.
