What was your second chance?

as best as i can put it 'where the rubber meets the scalpel'.

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In junior high and highschool, falling into a crowd of friends that had good values and good parenting. Otherwise my two alcoholic parents and my general lack of motivation, was not a good outlook for a youngster. My group of friends were on the college track and were generally afraid of getting in trouble, so we usually stayed clear of trouble.

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I'm not sure I've had it yet.

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I had a fatal (obviously temporary) reaction to Demerol. My heart and breathing stopped for about 4 minutes. I did not see the light, but I did experience a wonderful respite from all the pain (physical, mental, emotional) that I wasn't even aware I had. What I felt was a wonderful sense of peace, welcome, fullness, expansiveness. My fear of dying has been nearly eliminated. I was at a low point in my life when this happened and turned my life around through the 12 Steps. Nearly 20 years later, I remain grateful for that glimpse into the other side.

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I've had many second chances. But getting sober was my first second chance.....

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I must be fortunate, because I haven't needed one. So I'm holding it in reserve...just in case.

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Actually I feel like virtually every moment is a second chance to be compassionate, forgiving, accepting - if only I remember to see it that way.

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Seeing as how I'm going back to school (AGAIN), I think I'm technically on my third chance. We get, like, seven or eight chances, right?

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Everyday is another chance

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Probably my second divorce? Not planning on doing that M-thing again.

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Probably going on the meds.

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Oh, there have been so many second chances! One doesn't live to the ripe young age of 63 without several of them along the way.

Getting sober was the most important second chance, and I very gratefully didn't let that one slip through me fingers.

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When my company closed after 31 years because of the economy, it's giving me a second chance to do a career that I love! If ya gotta work til you're 75, ya better love it!

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I'm still waiting.

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Gender Change + 12 Step Recovery = Second Chance.........a re-incarnation without having to leave the body.

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Moving onto a farm that turned out to be a cult. Believe it or not, the experience changed/saved my life in so many good ways that I will always be grateful I was a part of it. That being said, I left before it got really bad. I hope the authorities raid it sometime soon and the leader gets sent to jail for some of the things I found out later about what went on while I was there.

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I told her about everything. All the dishonesty. All the mistakes. All the bad decisions. I laid it all on the line and she gave me a second chance. I wish my life were a fairy tale but it didn't end there. Two months later and I blew my second, and last, chance.

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Damn. I've had a lot of them. Three highlights:

#1 With my old therapist, who assured me, "It's your life - you can take it," which made me feel there was at least one thing in my life I could do.

#2 With my first sponsor, who told me, "Of course you're having a spiritual crisis. You've made sex your god." She also kept pointing out when I would repeatedly tell her how fucked up all my romantic relationships were, "It's you."

#3 With my spiritual teacher, who has taught and gven me so much, I can't possibly repeat it all here. However, just the other day, after discovering I set my clock ahead 15 minutes to get myself places on time, she said with a smile and raised eyebrow, "So you lie to yourself."

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The first time around, I let myself be emotionally and physically beaten because I didn't know I could have any say in the matter. Now I have a lot of say in the matter, and instead of feeling beaten, I am being transported to a higher spiritual plane. And for me that comes from intense physical sensation. I love it.

today when i realized i have a second chance at being grateful, slowing down and not having to have everything stat! Thank god, patience surrender. I could watch the people move and not be in a rush. I can taste my food instead of swallowing it whole. I can watch a movie instead of paying bills or being on the internet.

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getting 'opposite sex hormones' and going through 'second puberty.'

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My second chance was a thin lipped, Scottish, research scientist, who knew all the words to the Dean Martin songs I love..."When the moon hits your eye...." Oh my, there is still a tug of the heart strings there. Do you believe there are third chances in life for us?

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Yes. I had received an invitation to work as a rail road person with Union Pacific. I turned it down due to the fact that I wasn't committed to the idea of having a career. I regretted that decision, and hoped to have another chance to apply for the job again. I did, when they invited me to take a test for the position. Needless to say, I failed. Thus, there goes my second chance.

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Once when I was much younger and wilder, I got in a fight with my bosses boyfriend (who was sort of her boss) and quit my job. I was so angry and frustrated I strapped my back pack and a case of beer on the back of my motorcycle and headed off toward North Carolina (from Texas). Almost to Houston, a trucker called me in for doing 90 miles an hour when I passed him and I was pulled over for my one and only DWI arrest. After a couple of days I ended up in the Harris County Jail in Houston which makes "the tombs" in New York look like an NYU mixer. A day later my parents had called an uncle of mine who was a lawyer and partner in a bail bond outfit right across the street from the jail. He picked me up and took me down to his beach house on Galveston Island. We stayed there for the better part of a week. I helped him build a back porch and we went out to a country western dance joint and, yes, drank beer together. He was the very first person who treated me with respect even after I had behaved very badly. I never got that from my parents. I keep him in my life constantly even though we're 2000 miles apart and, divorced from my father's sister, he's not officially part of the family. But he'll always be my favorite uncle.

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The one before my third, fourth, fifth.... I can give you the corny but true recovery story -- my version -- suffice to say every day is a second chance.

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And mine...

After years of immaturity, self-centeredness and emotional dependency, I am learning to be self-sufficient. Along with this comes learning how to love and be loved. Today's second chance, to open up to my sister about my spiritual life and to feel heard and accepted, has left me feeling full of the love and joy I never thought I was allowed to have. I am very grateful to have had a second chance to be a better sister.