You don't get a second chance. Not really. Not for the same thing. You get other opportunities to do similar things, maybe better things--a job offer at the same company, a ticket to visit the same country, a chance at love with the same person--but you never step into the same stream twice. The world would have changed, you would have changed, so the chance is never the same.
We take a chance or give it up based on what's right for us. Discerning the horizon as best we can, we make what we believe is the optimal choice. If we make a mistake, we will get a chance (call it a second? a third? a fourth?) to make amends, to course correct, to do over, to be better. Mostly, though, we should do ourselves the mercy of learning to be happy with the chances we do take and stop torturing ourselves with the roads not traveled.
