Hotshots: Take the Risk?

more by Jason Gardner | Youth

Title: Take the Risk?

Preparation:

Four cans of food – 3 normal eg fruit salad, one dogfood. Remove labels and number the cans 1-4. Two spoons, can opener, hat.

Activity:

Play tin can roulette with 2 volunteers, they have to pull numbers out of a hat and taste the contents of the corresponding tin.
Stop when someone gets the dog food – don’t get them to actually eat it unless you do the old ‘swap’ trick ( take the bottom off the can, empty it of dog food, wash it and fill it with blackcurrant jelly and mars bar chunks then reseal the bottom as carefully as you can with selotape)

Give both participants a bar of fair-trade chocolate for taking part.

Talk:

Now that might have seemed like a pretty ‘tame’ risk. After all even if they had eaten some dog food what’s the worst that could happen? A bit of an upset stomach and your breath smelling like a Labradors all day.

But think for a moment is there a risk you’ve taken that could have had pretty serious consequences? It could be a Jackass style stunt that ends up with a trip to A & E or staying out all night without telling your parents and then having half the Police in England looking for you by the time you get home.

So why do we take risks?

Some scientists think it may be because during your teenage years the bit of your brain that deals with logic and decision making hasn’t developed properly yet – apparently that happens at the age of 17. So when faced with the chance to hold on to the wing mirror of a moving car whilst on a skateboard, your brain doesn’t think ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea’ but ‘wahoo, let’s do it!’

But if we’re honest one of the biggest reasons we take risks is because we’re convinced that we’ll impress people around us or we’re convinced that when it comes to things like the big three, sex, drugs and alcohol that everybody’s taking risks.

That’s just not true though. The big, big majority of teenagers have weighed up the consequences of having sex underage, doing too many drugs and drinking too much alcohol and have realised that the potential outcomes just don’t make it worth the risk.

A recent survey amongst teenagers concluded:

A quarter of teenagers get drunk at least three times a month, that means ¾ of teenagers don’t.

26% of girls aged 16-19 and 30% of boys admitted that they’d had sex before the age of 16 - that means 74% of girls and 70% of boys in the survey haven’t.

The majority of teenagers do not get arrested, drunk pregnant or killed, you are in the majority.

So do take a risk if you think it is really worth it. Join the school drama production, some of your friends may laugh at you but you might find out you’re a brilliant actor. Sometimes we don’t find anything new out about ourselves unless we take a risk.

But don’t take a risk if you’re not prepared to handle the consequences – weigh up your options – especially when it comes to drugs and alcohol. And definitely don’t take a risk just because you think everybody else is doing it, chances are they’re not.

NB stats & info taken from Nicola Morgan’s Blame my Brain: The Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed.

For Further Illustration:

Christian Perspective:

Matthew 16: 13-20, Jesus takes a risk in trusting Peter to build his Church, though Acts proves he made a good choice.

Film Clip:

Zoolander – 14 mins 12 seconds to 15:47
Four intelligent male models take a risk when they have a ‘harmless’ petrol fight.

Quote:

Someone once said ‘It is easy to follow, but it is uninteresting to do easy things. We find out about ourselves only when we take risks, when we challenge and question.’