The biggest risk I haven’t taken is the one that sits in the back of my mind every time I finish a post, close a notebook, or hit “publish.” It’s the risk of writing full-time. Not the dream of leaving teaching, but of having the freedom to write whenever inspiration strikes — to live fully inside the stories, essays, and reflections that are constantly forming in my head.
It’s not just about time; it’s about trust. To take that risk would mean believing that the words themselves could carry me — that they could keep the lights on, pay the bills, and make the same kind of difference in the world that teaching does. It would mean staking my security on something as uncertain and fragile as creativity.
Maybe the hardest part is that I already am a writer, but I’ve never had the space to see how far that could really go. I imagine what it would be like to wake up and spend every day shaping sentences instead of grading them — to chase ideas without a bell schedule or a deadline. That’s the risk I’d take if I could: to bet on my own voice, and see if it’s strong enough to stand on its own.
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
