“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift from God”. This is a quote that I heard several times in my twenty years of life and I hold true to it. I never know what my days have in store for me, but I do know that what my history was and what my mysteries will be will always secure a place filled with chances: chances to succeed, chances to forgive and chances to move on. I believe in chances no matter what type it is because I never know what might happen if I decide to take that chance, what would have happened if I took that chance or if I gave others chances.
When I was 17 years old and a senior in high school I lost my father. I hadn’t seen him in around ten years so I didn’t know how I should be feeling. I had seen him at the hospital before he died but he didn’t see me nor realize who I was due to the medicine, but at the time I didn’t really care. He hadn’t seen me in ten years, what was one more day? The next day I got a phone call saying my brother and I had to go to the hospital because he took a turn for the worse. After six long hours and having to make the adult decision that kids should never have to make, we decided to pull him off life support.
My father was not a father and never made the attempt to be one. However, looking back at that moment in my life I wish I gave him one more chance. I never took those chances I believe in. He is an example of one those chances that I won’t get again yet should have taken. I should never be afraid of what comes into my life. I just need to go out there and give it a shot, no matter what it is or who it is. It is a chance of a lifetime I always hear and I never know when another chance will come my way. Instead of letting it passing by I need to reach out and grab it.
Chances may not matter but they do, because they are those things in life that whether I miss it or not, they might shape who I am or have altered who I was. Those moments in my life where I say “I wish for just one more chance “or “I should have given that a chance” don’t come all the time or may never happen again. When they are taken it is an opportunity that happened for a reason. Chances are those things in life that seem to come when we mess up or when it is needed the most. They are risks we take but in the end they come with the best outcomes.