Take risks! I did, and got a wife

Michie · Mar 16, 2024

Saints dare to disturb the universe. Pope Francis is always encouraging young people to be risk-takers.

“Do you dream?” Pope Francis asked young people in Rome in January. “Do you have restlessness in your thoughts, in your hearts?” He became urgent: “Do not be afraid to risk,” he said, and even pleaded: “Please risk. … If you do not risk, who will?”

I second his urgency: It’s vital that young people take risks. Big risks. Risks are how every good thing comes to you. In fact, it is how I got my wife.

Words very much like Pope Francis’ are what convinced April to marry me.

I wrote a long quote out on a piece of paper that ended with the words: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

She was starting graduate school, a hard time to start a family, too. I would have to leave my job to join her, and I didn’t yet have another. And we would have to live on the opposite coast from our families and friends. April’s parents worried about the wisdom of it.

But the quote did its work on April’s soul. The rest of it went like this:

“There is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless splendid plans: The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

Every part of that quote came true.

Continued below.