Second Chances

A week ago, through a series of events that gave me some unexpected roaming time, I happened upon a a store that was offering a sizable discount, that day only, if you signed up for the store credit card. Now, I love a good bargain, so this offer was mighty tempting, so tempting that I spent quite a while there, assessing how many things I'd buy with the discount, thinking perhaps it was fate that I'd happened to have unexpected roaming time on that particular date.

In the end, I walked out with no purchases and no credit card. My reluctance to have another card in my wallet was just too strong. But, make no mistake, I thought about it for days afterward, wondering if I'd done the right thing.

Today, I had another bit of unexpected roaming time, and what do you know? The sign was up in the store again--same offer, same "Today Only." This time it must really be fate, right? I was getting my second chance. I mean, what are the odds I'd end up there on the very two days they were running that special?

I am not a proud owner of the store credit card. Today, when I had a second chance, I decided that the second chance was not a sign that it must be done, but simply an opportunity to have closure from my experience of last week.

Sometimes second chances are more about being able to think than about being able to do. We can't always revisit our decisions, so we've got to plan to do pretty well the first time around. But when that second chance presents itself (and it doesn't do so often), we can't slack off--on the contrary, we need to do even better.

I can't say whether my decision today was the right one (and, I'll admit, it wasn't exactly an earth-shattering decision). The point is, I had a second chance, and I think I used it well, used the extra processing time that we don't often get, and made a decision that I can live with, at least for now. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't squander my second chance. And that has made all the difference.