Have You Ever Had A Second Chance?

I have mentioned before that both my parents are medical doctors, and that they always wanted me to become a medical doctor too because as far as they were concerned – dad especially – medical “doctorness” was in my blood. Wrong.

When I realized that the doctor thing was not going to work, I decided to try the next best thing: nursing. I took all the prerequisite courses and passed, and I even made it into nursing school. I survived the first semester of Fundamentals of Nursing, and then, in the second semester, I tried even harder to survive Med-Surg (Medical-Surgical Nursing 1) and Psychiatric Nursing, but it did not happen.

I failed out of Nursing School, and I was sure my life was over. I did not have a backup plan, Plan B or anything, and I had not imagined myself doing anything else (although I loved writing) because at that time, nursing was my only career choice, and anything that resembled a writing career was a hobby and a joke, not actually an option. How could the daughter of two medical doctors become a writer? It was not possible.

After I failed out of nursing school, I tried to get into other nursing schools, but everyone rejected me. I got the classic, “Although you meet all the requirements, we are sorry we have chosen other candidates. We wish you the best as you endeavor in your academic goals.”  That was the letter I got every time. I took extra courses to boost my chances, including chemistry which I did not like but managed to ace. That semester, my GPA was 4.0.  Still, no one took me in. I stayed home for almost two years with no school and no work and there were too many times that I really thought that all my academic, financial, and career dreams were over.

As a Nigerian, not being a graduate is not really an option, and when you keep seeing other people graduate, you start feeling useless. I felt useless. Then while I was home, I discovered blogging. An online friend I had made from a Nigerian chat room had a blog, and she invited me via email to go read it. I read her blog, and there was absolutely nothing interesting on it, but it did not matter. What mattered was that I discovered there was such a thing as blogging. I did not have any money, so when I found out that Google would let me get my own space for free via Blogspot, I suddenly had a new outlook on life. And that was how I started blogging and telling my own stories. January 26th will make it 10 years since I started blogging, and I have not stopped thanking God for the grace to do this.

When I started blogging, I never wrote about what I was going through academically, financially, and personally, but whatever I did blog about, people left comments, and those comments inspired me so much. I decided to abandon my chase for a nursing career, and instead, I applied to more schools for a degree in Psychology. I was accepted into the University of Maryland and I had tunnel vision because all I wanted was to graduate. It was my second chance, my chance at not messing up academically and proving that I could do something.

FOX has a new show coming up soon, called Second Chance. The preview reminded me about my opportunity for a second chance and watching it allowed me to reflect on that time of my life. I enjoyed watching it and remembering the times I proved myself.    It’s about Jimmy Pritchard, a seventy-five year old disgraced sheriff and father who made all the wrong choices. He was a drinker, womanizer, and always put work ahead of family. But he was killed when he walked in on an ongoing armed robbery happening in his son’s house. He did not stay dead for long because some wealthy scientists experimented and brought him back to life as a younger, better version of himself with physical abilities that he never had.

So, does being younger and stronger make him better, too? Does he recognize that a second chance has been given to him to possibly right the wrongs he did, or does he just have a second chance to do the wrongs again – maybe even worse this time? Watch the trailer below and try to guess.

Second chances are about redemption, starting over, fixing errors, etc, but for Jimmy, it’s a lot more than that for him. For Jimmy, it is mostly about family. I cannot wait to see what he does with his second chance. Second Chance premieres on Wednesday, January 13th 2016 9/8c on FOX. By the way, what kind of second chance would you like to have, and what would you do with it?