In life, you’ll sometimes be devastated, either by virtue of happenstance or by an error you make. The loss will shake you up to your core. You’ll beg and claim as you talk to your friends, and sometimes yourself, that you’d trade anything for a second chance, for a do-over, just one more attempt, one more time.
Often, life being life, you’ll be pushed forward through the strings of time, and like a puppet, you’ll be pulled in and from all directions. You’ll realise that life demands you to stand upright, and so you’ll manage somehow. Often, you’ll sustain long-term damage from the constant pulling, like all before you and all after.
You’ll go forward though, and you’ll live again. While you’re at it, you’ll start to forget mentioning your request for a second chance. Of course, you’ll desperately cling to that possibility, and you’d still tell yourself you’d give anything you have for that one chance, but you’ll not say it.
As you go further, you’ll fall a lot, and be battered and punched and kicked for such is the nature of life. No one comes out pristine and without lasting damage. You’ll limp forwards, but you’ll keep going, and somewhere along the journey, you’ll forget your outrageous demand for a second chance for whatever it is you think you can change.
As memory fades, and as you get used to the gifts of time for there are always gifts of time, you’ll smile again. It won’t happen with a huge announcement or drumroll. One day, you’ll be walking down the street and see something as simple as a dog rolling in the mud, and suddenly, you’ll smile, and suddenly, life wouldn’t feel so hard again.
As you look around your life, you’ll realise you got your second chance a long time ago. You’ll smile and chuckle a bit and look up and around, and then, it’ll hit you again, harder, for you know what they say: all human beings learn every lesson twice.
Your second chance began the moment you fell from grace all those years ago, my little hero. You’ll accept that, and that’s when you’ll throw your old, wilted laurel wreath away. You’re no hero. You’re just breathing, but not only for yourself for the first time.