Consider the following comments on trust.
Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.
Anonymous
Trust, but verify.
Proverb
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Ernest Hemingway
We do not trust people because they are flawless, we trust them because we have seen how they behave when no one is watching.
Sometimes the bravest thing is not to trust again but to admit you no longer can.
Write a reflective piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your thinking and the way you express it.
A way into this prompt
A reflective thesis is that trust is less a feeling than a wager, a decision to be vulnerable to someone without proof that they will not hurt you. Open with a concrete moment, perhaps a confidence kept or a promise quietly broken, that made the cost of trust real. Then move inward to the tension: trust extended too freely leaves us exposed, yet trust withheld leaves us isolated and alone. A useful structural move contrasts the trust we give others with the harder question of whether we can trust ourselves, our memory, our judgement. Caution: resist tying everything up with the cliche that you should always trust again, since some breaches teach a wariness that is wisdom, not weakness.