Broken for You

Prompt:Margaret’s diagnosis prompts her to take certain personal risks and to make herself vulnerable in ways that she hasn’t for many years. Describe a time in your own life when you decided to take a personal risk. What happened? Be as specific and detailed as possible in describing your experience.

Definately the bigest risk I have taken was deciding to become an artist. I know that there are a lot of people here in the same boat.
I have always had a passion for art, but it wasn't until winter of my junior year that I seriously considered making the transition from "someone who does art" to "artist." It was terrifying. I started taking art classes my sophomore year, and a little bit into my junior year my art teacher told me she thought I should consider applying to some art schools. At first I thought that maybe that was something she said to all her students who did more that goof off, but she kept encouraging me. I was so unsure. I knew that I would love to spend the rest of my life making art, but I couldn't shake the though that it would probably mean living with my parents untill I was thirty or never being able to afford more than some decrepid one-room loft. No one in my family was an artist, and the whole idea was so alien. So I did the only logical thing: I didn't eat for a week. More specificly, I fasted. For a week I prayed and thought about my future, and by the end of the week I knew that if I never took the risk, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
So I spent the next year building up my portfolio, and when January came around I hualed what I had to Cornish for National Portfolio Day (an event that Cornish hosts every year where representatives from art schools across the country come to review porfolios for admission). I had two finished pieces, a mess of figure drawings, and four or five unfinished paintings. I figured I'd show my stuff to the Cornish rep and see what they thought, then come back in a couple months for my official portfolio review. I laid everything out for the rep and explained the concepts behind my work and the direction the unfinished pieces were headed. When I finished I was prepared to listen to some critisism and advice, but I wasn't prepared for what happened.
"This is the calibure of work we're looking for." The rep told me. Bob, I think his name was. "I want to really encourage you to fill out an application and send it into the school." Well I wasn't exactly grasping what he was telling me, so I said something about completeing my portfolio and coming back for my official portfolio review, and he laughed. I was so confused. He had to explain to me at least two more times that he had just conducted the review, even though I only had about half the required elements, and I had been accepted. I don't know how long I stared at him with the classical "dear in the headlights" look before it really hit me and I was overcome with a foolish grin and a small fit of relieved giggles.
I took the first part of the risk, and here I am, at Cornish, now I'm lainching myself into the real risk, which will be graduating and trying to avoid being a starving artist!