The Price of Trust: Lessons from the Risk We Take

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Life is all about risks, from the huge-scale risks of venturing into business and diving from an airplane to the littlest risks like leaving the house at any time of the day.
Risk is something that must be taken to learn and advance in life.
Some people claim to be scared of the word risk but they make risks both aware and unaware. You have to be conscious and wise about the risks you take.
My mum always told my siblings and me that her trying to conceive us alone was a risk she took because thousands of women don't survive childbirth. The one my dad is always fond of saying is how he takes the risk to train all his children in school because he can never know what all of us will turn out to be.
It's very simple and clear to accept risk as a part of life, risk depends on the Unknown, and we don't know anything, and even the things we choose to believe we know are a risk we take.

I have taken a lot of risks in my life. And it was just recently that I took a huge financial risk, by investing the largest sum of money I have ever had in a loan company I am quite familiar with. I remember my brother being the first person I told about it because I saw him spending his money lavishly and wanted to help him save. At first, he was interested, but later on, he used the risk as an excuse to back out and avoid losing money.

But that is just my first huge financial risk. My most recent risk I took was just a few days ago. So my cousin brought this girl to our room and we were all gisting, one thing led to another and she told us she was selling peanuts which she carried around in her bag to support herself in school. Then she started telling us to patronize her, I just wanted to patronize her to show goodwill, but I didn't have cash. So she told me it was alright and gave me her number to contact her so she could send her account number later for me to transfer the money to her.

I chatted her up immediately on WhatsApp, and later that night, she responded, and I sent her the money. Two days later, I received a random text from this girl that she needed the money, it wasn't a big sum, though, just two thousand naira. But right from boarding school, I have always hated it when someone needed something from me, no matter how small, would show so much humility, but once they get what they wanted, they transform into a whole new being. In boarding school that behavior almost made me stop helping people. I didn't think much since I had some extra money and she sounded like she needed it so I sent her the money and she said she would refund it the next day.

The next day, early in the morning, she refunded the money. Then that same evening, she asked for urgent money again, saying she was sorry and didn't know she would end up needing four thousand naira urgently, and promised she would refund it that same day. It made me remember what some people did back in boarding school, they would gain your trust the first time so they could go away with something bigger the second time. But still, I took the risk and sent her the money. Well after she apologized twice for the next two days consecutively after failing to refund the money and promising to pay with just a little grace of time. It's been three days now after her last excuse, and since I haven't bothered to press her for it, she hasn't bothered to at least make up an excuse.

But I knew the risk I was taking, I knew no matter what, I couldn't trust anybody because I could never know the exact future, but I took the risk. And I have learned from it like I learn every day. And next time I would make a different and better choice.