"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
I have debated this for a long time, because giving someone a second chance and being screwed over essentially, is a pretty bad feeling. If you go out on a limb and forgive someone, allow them back into your life, and they hurt you again, well I wouldn't believe in second chances either- but this is why you should.
Everyone messes up, everyone lies, everyone makes the wrong choice, and I am no exception to this. I don't think people believe in second chances until they need one, until they are the ones that messed up, until they are the ones that made the wrong choice. Often times I find that we hurt the ones we love the most, because they are the ones we have the ability to hurt, they are the ones who care about what we do, what we say. I still don't know why we, as people, hurt others in the way we sometimes do, and I am not sure anyone can justify and have a reason. I do know a lot of the time we don't mean it, and " I made a mistake" is a good of a reason as any. Every person is guilty of being selfish, people can't help but look out for themselves and there own agendas, and this makes giving someone a second chance easier. A lot of the time hurting someone you care about is just a backlash of doing something you think will bring your own life happiness or better your own life. This is a reason we should believe in second chances, because intent to hurt you is much different than hurting you as collateral damage of an action.
We should believe in second chances because people change. How cliché, but how true. People change every single day, every single year they get older, there experiences change them, whether it be minor or huge. If someone means a lot to you, has done a lot for you, do not remember them for there mistakes, or remember them for there worst moment. Sometimes we forget memories and time spent with someone, while all we can remember is how we feel they have wronged us. I will tell everyone a secret I have learned over time - the memories and times spent with someone does not go away, no matter what the degree of bad they do.
Back to people being generally selfish - do it for yourself. Forgive and move forward for yourself, do not carry around the weight of a mistake that you did not make. One day, at some point in everyone's life, we will ask someone for a second chance, and realize why we should give them to others. Why did I chose this to write about? Pretty random, I know, but I have seen people who were so close not speak a word to each other because of mistakes. I have seen friends become distant strangers due to meaningless mistakes of words they didn't mean, parents and kids become estranged, and people hold onto things they can't change. It's not worth it.
