A Second Chance Essay

It was my chance to prove myself; I was about to go out there and audition for a talent show through singing and playing the piano. I was so sure that I would do it, since I knew the judges personally and they were already aware that I had the talent. I haven’t actually practiced the song as much as I was supposed to, but I was certain that I would know it properly since I have practiced before several times. I was waiting for my turn, and while I was waiting, I was starting to get nervous and tense about the whole thing. When I was up, I took a deep breath and started playing the song. The first thing I did wrong was mix up the notes. The first time was excused as it was thought to be normal and that everyone makes mistakes. The second time was also excused, the third, the fourth.. It was starting to get irritating. Other than the note mix up, when I started to sing, my voice went too high and I started to get out of breath. In addition to this, I forgot and mixed all the lyrics of the song. This made me stop in the middle of the song excusing myself for all the mistakes that I’ve done. Since the judges were my friends, they were totally understandable; they realized that I was nervous and that I am good at this, despite my failed efforts. This made me feel miserable. I have failed to preform something I have known and been playing for almost a year. I couldn’t sing the song without making a word mixup every now and then. I informed the judges the next day that I would like to audition again, and this time I was going to do it right. The minute I told them I was going to audition again, I went home searching for a completely different song to preform, and this time I was going to focus on singing it only. I found the perfect song, and once I did I started practicing on it. I have noticed that the last time I auditioned, I was nervous when my turn was up, so I decided to ask different people I knew to hear me out, and anytime I would get nervous I would randomly start singing, to try and overcome my fear of preforming in front of a crowd. When the day of my second audition finally arrived, I was assured that I would do it this time, given the fact that I have practiced beforehand and tried to overcome my fear. The minute I preformed, I felt a tinge of nervousness, but then It was like I was preforming to myself, not scared at all. I was confident enough and because of this I did a good job and the judges loved it. This made me realize that once you set your mind on something, even if you fail it once, you can always achieve it. If you have the will to do it, you will succeed. The second thing I realized was that you should always, ALWAYS make sure you are prepared for any situation that may arise, even if you think you know how to handle it. After all, practice makes perfect. This has made me believe that I should never give up on where I want to study, and even if I don’t get accepted the first time, I can work harder and apply again, I have nothing to loose. I should believe in myself and prepare myself for what’s ahead and will hopefully succeed. A Second Chance Essay In Harold Ramis’s film, â€Å"Groundhog Day† and Franz Kafka’s story, â€Å"The Metamorphosis†, both main characters are faced with a life-changing event because of the way they live their lives. In Groundhog Day the main character Phil is an arrogant, sarcastic weatherman absorbed in his own discomforts, without hope, and cut off from other people. He is forced to relive the same day, groundhogs day, over and over again. In â€Å"The Metamorphosis the main character is Gregor Samsa, a man who spends his time working to pay off a debt for his father. Gregor wakes up to find that he has turned into a beetle. Throughout these two works the main characters try to go back to living their life as before not realizing that this is their second chance at life to make things right. Phil manages to do so only by breaking through and becoming a person of intimacy, creativity and compassion which sets him free from his exile of living in the same day over and over again. As for Gregor, going from someone everyone depends on to something no one wants to care for, he doesn’t get a chance to have everything go back to normal. He dies and his family, for once, is relieved. Groundhog Day lets us experience what it would be like to make a breakthrough like this in our own lives. The movie shows us a character that is like the worst in ourselves. Like us, he finds himself in an inexplicable situation, something like fate. But, unlike us, he gets the luxury of being stuck in the same day until he gets it right. Where most of us go semi-automatically through most of our days, he is forced to stop and treat each day like a world onto itself, and decide how to use it. In the end, he undergoes a breakthrough to a more authentic self in which intimacy, creativity and compassion come naturally – a self that was trapped inside him and that could only be freed by trapping him. Like many of the heroes of fiction, he can only escape his exile from himself by being exiled in a situation not of his choosing. This movie hits on a message that is commonly found elsewhere and that appears to express an essential truth. When we get beyond denial and resentment over the conditions of life and death, and accept our situation, it tells us, then life ceases to be a problem and we can become authentic and compassionate. Phil makes two such breakthroughs: first he accepts being condemned to being stuck in the same day, then he accepts the fact that everyone else is condemned to die. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation is kind of an extended metaphor. He deeply resented having to support his family. Desiring to be in turn nurtured by them, he becomes a parasite. The complete dependence of Gregor’s family and employer on him, then, is seen as an ironic foil to the reality of Gregor’s anatomical transformation into a parasite. The Metamorphosis is not upon Gregor, but on his family, as they abandon their dependence on him and learn to be self-sufficient. One interpretation of the story holds that the title applies equally to Gregor’s sister Grete: she passes from girlhood to young womanhood during the course of the narrative. Another view of Gregor’s transformation is that it is an extended metaphor, carried from abstract concept to concrete reality: trapped in a meaningless job and isolated from the human beings around him, Gregor is thought of as an insect by himself and by others, so he becomes one only to die, and relieving the family of having to take care of him. Fiction allows us to identify with and play characters who find their true selves, putting us in touch with the universal human nature in each of us. The ability to watch and play the role of fictional characters makes the fiction more interesting and expands our vision of possible ways of being. But, one way or another, it must lead us back to our true selves, the universal, moral being we all are, which is as real as the physical world is real. Groundhog Day symbolizes just this since Phil treats his life as a game only when he is in despair. Once he has a sense of hope, he becomes more authentic and discovers himself. As for The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s state before he turned into a bug contrasts with the family’s state after the got jobs and began working. I guess Kafka is trying to say that we shouldn’t work like bugs for others leaving out time for ourselves as Gregor had but instead work for ourselves with pride and dignity as the family did at the end of the story. A Second Chance Essay Three years ago, my cousin Wael, aged 17, died next to me in a car accident. It was a very beautiful evening, I just got off work and was excited to go home and drive my new Nissan 350Z my boyfriend just got me. As I arrived to my house, Wael was waiting for me. I hadn’t seen him over a week or so, and the excitement to see him was killing me. I wanted to go out for a drive to catch up, as well as test drive the new car. We were out driving for about twenty minutes or so; we told each other stories and just laughed until we couldn’t breathe any longer. At a point, he kept asking me to let him drive my car. This car was probably every teenagers dream. I didn’t want to at first, because my boyfriend had asked me to please not let anyone else drive it. I couldn’t say no to Wael. He was my everything; we always did things with each other, and for each other. I finally gave up, parked at a random store and switched seats with him. The fun then really began. We drove everywhere; we drove past my house, past our high school and finally went on this road called Hillcrest Road. This road is known for how small and narrow it is, and its big bumpy hills. We both knew what was about to happened. We were about to have the best time. He got in it, stepped on the gas as hard as he could, and the car speed off. We were screaming with laughter from how fast the car was going, and how much fun it was to feel like we were flying in the air. Finally we made it at the end of the road. I was glad that was over with, because in my head I kept thinking,† please don’t scratch up the car.† He wasn’t done, he asked me, â€Å"one more time please?† I gave up arguing with him, and agreed. This time around he put his whole weight on the gas pedal and took off as fast as he could. We were laughing, screaming, and looking at each other as we were flying in the air. There was a moment when the car flew af ter the hill and started to drift to the left. I got scared and asked him to stay in the lane. I think he freaked out and didn’t know how to handle the car. He made a mistake by hitting the break while we were flying instead of hitting the break when we landed. The two front wheels locked and as soon as it hit the concrete ground, everything started moving in slow motion. I could feel the car sliding off the road and going towards a white fence. I don’t remember what happened after that hit because it happened so fast. I can recall waking up with glass pocking the soles of my feet, blood dripping down my neck; it was so wet and gushy. I was so sore and in so much pain. I looked over to my shoulder to see if my cousin is still there, but all I see is blood dripping down his nose and I tried to wake him up. I was screaming at him â€Å"Please wake up, please.† When he couldn’t respond to me I tried to get out the car even though opening the door was very hard. Everything was blurry and every muscle in my body was aching. I was told, I just passed out on the ground while I was trying to walk to a house to get help. Eventually, someone called 911 and the ambulance and care flight came for both of us. I was taken on the ambulance to be treated for severe head injuries, while they were working on getting Wael out of the crushed car. I have been hit in the head by the fences we ran into, and had lost too much blood. Wael was pronounced dead due to internal bleeding. When I eventually woke up in the hospital, I heard all the crying and screaming, and that’s when I knew someone died. I couldn’t understand who, I mean it wasn’t me because I was still here. I kept telling myself this is just a dream; I will wake up soon, but I never woke up. That person who died was my cousin. I couldn’t cry, I was numb, I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t understand what had just happened. I just couldn’t believe it, no way. We were just having so much fun a couple hours ago it seemed. I guess bad news spreads faster than good news, because the next morning I was surrounded by people who I knew as well as I didn’t know. It was variety of people from friends, police officers and even family members from all over that I haven’t seen in years. That’s when it hit me, that my cousin is gone forever. I cried and cried myself to sleep. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, and the nightmares kept getting worse as the days went on. All of my family hated me because they blamed me for his death. I developed very bad depression, I stopped talking to everyone, I got angry fast and I felt lonely. I had nothing going for myself. I felt like I lost everyone who I once loved, or at least those who loved me. One day my mom begged me to go get help, or just get out and do something with myself. I had to do something about this; it had been way too long. I had suffered enough, I grieved for way to long and that’s when I came to the conclusion that God has a plan for me and this is why he is still keeping me around. God gave me a second chance, he wants me to do something with myself. I believe everyone deserves second chance in life. It doesn’t matter if it a big mistake or a small mistake. Walking around with grudges won’t solve anything. Obviously when I was walking around grieving it didn’t do me any good. I blamed God, I blamed my boyfriend for getting me that car, and I took it hard on myself because I willingly handed the vehicle to my cousin. This world is filled with good and bad things. It’s sad to say that it took a car accident and losing the closest person I had ever had to make me realize this. Wael might be gone but he will never be forgotten. I feel like he begged me to drive the car for a reason. It me who was supposed to be killed, but God took him before me. I believe everyone deserves a second chance just like God gave me another chance. I felt like I died and came back. As long as I am alive I can survive anything, and I know I have a purpose in life. My life did change dramatically; I can’t say I am the same person I used to be. My family went from hating me to being the closest people I have in my life; I went from doing nothing for myself to enrolling at Kettering Medical College. Life can be cruel and destructive, but God gave me a second chance at life for a good reason. This I must believe.