Second Chances

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

I will quote from discussion board in order to expand on the answer I posted there.  Professor Anthony asked the class, "Both Wes's are given warnings (after an encouter with police/advice from Tony) about their behavior and its subsequent path. When do they face second chances? How are these different from last chances?"

My answer was, "Wes gets a second chance when he hears from his friend about the job program.  He takes this second chance and thrives.  He got to choose whether or not he took his second chance.  It was in his control.  Looking at the bigger picture, it seems that may have been his second chance AND his last chance.  For some reason that was not explained in the book, Wes suddenly throws his whole life away by robbing a jewelry store.  So, his last chance was to change his life, he took it and then threw it away.   

Wes had his second chance when he was forced into military school.  He was not happy about this but soon began to love it.  This second chance was out of his hands.  His mother took this second chance for Wes.  Although he did not get to choose it, he still benefited from it.  Because Wes had this second chance, and stuck with it, he did not need another chance.  He let his first chance change him.

Second chances are easy to distinguish.  Last chances are not.  We can see right up front when we are getting another chance.  But not until way later will we see that it may have been our last chance."

To expand a little farther, second chances seem to be pretty common.  A lot of people talk about when they had their second chance.  But, years later, do they realize it was actually their last chance?  Do people ever give up their second chance, assuming they will have a third or fourth or fifth?  And when those third, firth, and fifth chances  never come, what do they do then?  Live with regrets?  I sure would.