Taking chances

Perhaps it's a bit childish but the (very little) jewellery I wear is my reminder that taking chances is what life is all about. I only wear three things without interruption - my ear cuff (to remind me that I AM adventurous, even when I worry about secretly being quite boring - I had the piercing done after a particularly horrific set of uni exams), my silver thumb ring (to remind me of my adventures - the ring itself was about £4 which I haggled for in Kuala Lumpur) and my celtic silver middle finger ring (to remind me of why we must have adventures - I bought it in Edinburgh after finishing the Team Triathlon we did for my friends who died in the avalanche). My new glasses are a separate story photographed below - geek at heart, and ready to embrace it. 

I have an interview tomorrow, you see! Maybe that seems like quite an underwhelming 'chance' but given that it's for my year out across the pond, the stakes are reasonably high. Last week I was off skiing, throwing myself down snowy slopes in the Alps and taking only a few (if painful) tumbles.  Perhaps that was more of a chance taken - every time I heard an avalanche cannon go off, it was a painful reminder. I am not ashamed to say a couple of tears were shed. But it was wonderful to be in the clean air, with (interchangeably) the sun or snow on my back.  Since the start of 2014, I have seen friends await the arrival of a baby, two wonderful people get married, nearly got blown off the top of a mountain (billed as a hill - the weather made it seem otherwise), swam in an ice-cold lake and tinkered with various chemicals in a lab.  In the next few weeks there are other chances, adventures and escapades.  You can make a lot of things into chances for something awesome. 

So maybe I shouldn't worry so much about the interview. In my last interview some 2 years ago, I rocked up in a smart but nonetheless blue-with-wooden-beads dress that rattled when I walked. I'm pretty sure I was the only one there without a black suit on, girls included. I chatted with a friend until the interview started and made friends to share the taxi back to the station with. And hey, I got the job. So here's to embracing the unknown (with my trusty trio of cheap jewellery, of course!).