[Ohio-Talk] Braille Monitor: The Game of Risks by Sarah Patnaude

[Andra Stover]

Another great read. Thank you. I cannot wait until COVID-19 is done with or
taken care of so I can start attending the Louisiana training center!

On Sun, Jul 26, 2020 at 1:02 PM Suzanne Turner via Ohio-Talk <
ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

>
> The Game of Risks
>
>
> by Sarah Patnaude
>
> From the Editor: Many who read this will remember Sarah Patnaude of
> Virginia
> as a two-time winner of a National Federation of the Blind scholarship,
> first winning in 2014 and becoming a tenBroek winner in 2018. She was an
> intern at our Jernigan Institute in 2014. She is currently the
> corresponding
> secretary for the Virginia Affiliate and second vice president of the Human
> Services Division.
>
> In addition, she does cosplay, short for costume play, where she makes her
> own costumes by hand. She also enjoys photography and painting. What a
> biography.
>
> One of the issues conscientious Federationists look at again and again is
> whether we are doing all we can do or whether we are settling, a word that
> has come to mean pretending that we don’t want or need something because we
> fear getting it might be too hard. Sometimes we do not dare to risk, for
> our
> fear of failure is greater than our sense of hope and the belief we have in
> ourselves. Here is what Sarah has to say about her journey to believe in
> herself and go beyond the comfortable:
>
> Gathered around the dining room table, laughter and competitiveness fill
> the
> room. Boards, pieces, and cards take over the tables and floors. For the
> next few hours, the only person we could rely on was ourself. Every move
> you
> took had to be strategic.
>
> Growing up, family and community game nights were a Patnaude tradition. As
> a
> competitive individual, I found myself good at many games. However, there
> were a few games I just plain stunk at: one of which is a game called Risk.
> For those who have never played, Risk is a game where the purpose is none
> other than to take over the world. My favorite objective! There are two
> main
> strategies for this game: play the defense and only attack small countries
> or play the offense and take chances on attacking the larger countries. I
> typically chose the first strategy and only would attack countries I knew I
> could beat. However, that strategy always led to my demise.
> Although just a game, my strategy in life up until recently was a similar
> approach. Stick with the safety net and certainty and avoid risks and
> uncertainty. As a young kid, my life was full of uncertainty. We didn’t
> know
> when or if my vision would worsen. Thus, my doctors, parents, and I took
> precautions to limit the risk of a detached retina. Those precautions
> consisted of limiting my ability to play on playgrounds, go on diving
> boards, play contact sports, go in bounce houses, enjoy rides at amusement
> parks, and any other activity that could cause my head to be jerked around,
> or cause too much pressure. We did everything we could to limit the risk of
> going totally blind. It came at a cost though: I was not able to fully live
> my childhood.
>
> The next few times in my life where I recall having to decide to take a
> risk
> or not was in academics. In the fifth grade I was presented with the
> opportunity to attend a gifted middle school. At that point I was faced
> with
> the decision to attend a school that was foreign to my family and more
> academically challenging or attend the school my siblings attended. For me
> this was a simple decision at that time in my life. Both of my siblings
> attended the local middle school, and it would be almost certain I would
> have at least a few teachers they had. Thus, I went with the safe decision:
> the one where my family was familiar with the faculty and one that would
> allow me to have the most “normal” childhood. Next was high school. This
> time I knew I wanted to attend a specialty center. Would I apply for the
> Governor’s School, one of the most prestigious schools around, or would I
> attend the specialty center my sister attended? Once again I avoided the
> risk of rejection and applied for the school I knew I had the most chance
> of
> getting into and the one where my family was familiar with the faculty and
> administration.
>
> Since joining the Federation in 2010 at the age of sixteen, I knew I needed
> to attend a Federation training center to gain proficiency in blindness
> skills. However, like everything else, it involved risks. At first the risk
> involved college and whether my scholarship could wait a year. As someone
> who was very academically focused, did I really want to risk losing my
> scholarship or become even more indecisive about my course of study to gain
> blindness skills? I had after all excelled in high school without them.
> Then, the risk involved employment. Did I want to have a gap on my resumé?
> Entering my last year of graduate school though, I knew that I had put off
> training for far too long. I finally realized that the familiar was riskier
> than taking the risk.
>
> In May 2019 I started at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Although I
> gained proficiency in blindness skills and strengthened my philosophy, my
> journey at LCB was more than just blindness. It was a journey involving
> slowing down, embracing uncertainty, giving myself permission to succeed,
> and yes, taking risks. I remember the days of creeping slowly to every
> curb,
> too afraid to overstep it. My travel instructor gave me the first of many
> risk-taking talks. He explained the difference between careless risk-taking
> and cautious risk-taking. In that instance, I had the knowledge to
> distinguish the sidewalk from the street, so it wasn’t a careless risk to
> walk confidently to the curb. It was a risk that was backed up with
> knowledge I had and trust in my cane. In other words, I wasn’t planning to
> attack a country with a big army with only two men. I was attacking a
> slightly larger country with sufficient men on my side—a cautious risk.
>
> Three months into my training, I was faced with another risk. This time it
> was in home management where I had to make my own recipe. To say I was a
> strict recipe adherer is an understatement. Before going to training, if
> the
> recipe called for one garlic clove, I would use one garlic clove even
> though
> I love garlic. If the recipe called for raisins and I didn’t have raisins,
> well... I wasn’t making that recipe. Therefore, my instructor telling me to
> make my own soup based on nothing except the knowledge I had and my taste
> buds was like telling me, someone who is afraid of heights, to go bungee
> jumping, which I would never do. Up until then I made some pretty good
> dishes. Nothing did I recall spitting out, and I was convinced that was
> because I had followed recipes. So why take the risk of making something
> worth throwing in the garbage now? Because, as much as I hate to admit it,
> without risks there is no reward. If I continued to follow recipes
> strictly,
> I would never have the opportunity to learn and grow or have the
> opportunity
> to make something great. Let me tell you, that loaded potato soup was
> probably the best thing I made while I was a student, and I get to claim it
> as my own.
>
> Life is full of risks. Some have greater consequences than others. There is
> no harm in having a safety net or a comfort zone. However, being unwilling
> to take risks at all can be just as harmful as taking careless risks.
> Without some risk-taking, one cannot embrace to the fullest extent what
> life
> has to offer, and there are limited opportunities to grow. Be willing to
> get
> uncomfortable: take the job, take the leadership role, try a new
> fundraising
> event, go get training. Whatever risks present themselves in your life or
> even in your chapter or affiliate, do not settle for the familiar because
> of
> fear of the unknown. You never know what success you may have or the growth
> that can occur because of your decision to not play it safe. There are
> hundreds of accomplishments I am proud of during my time at LCB, but what I
> am the proudest of is knowing without a doubt that, with the skills and
> knowledge I have gained and a little problem-solving, I can face
> uncertainty
> and take risks and do it with confidence. Because of that, I have a much
> better chance at conquering the world.
>
> (back
> <https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm20/bm2007/bm200706.htm>
> )
> (contents
> <https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm20/bm2007/bm2007tc.htm>
> )
>
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