Erin McHugh - Second Chances: An Inspiring Collection of Do-Overs That Have Made Peoples Lives Brighter

Also by Erin McHugh

One Good Deed
Like My Mother Always Said
Like My Father Always Said
Like My Teacher Always Said

An inspiring collection of do-overs that have made peoples lives brighter.

ERIN McHUGH

Editor: David Cashion
Designer: Devin Grosz
Production Manager: Kathleen Gaffney

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017930326

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2413-8
eISBN: 978-1-6833-5047-7

Text copyright 2017 Erin McHugh

Published in 2017 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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To every one of us who ever said,
Let me try again, just one more time.

It can be anything, a second chance. It starts when youre a kid, hoping for do-overs like one more swing at the ball, another tryout for the play, making up with your best friend after a squabblethings you think are going to change your life. Thats how important another go at it feels. And at the time, it was.

When we look back, these breaks seem simple, so inconsequential. As adults, though, we often tend to think of second chances as opportunities on a grander scale: to right a failure, roll the seemingly Sisyphean rock back up the hill, orfingers crossedget back that thing or person we let slip away. But second chances can be so much more than that.

First and foremost, they are about learning and realizations. A second chance can be eye-opening and glorious, about recoveries of all kinds, a one-time chance to see things a different way. And another go-around doesnt always have to mean looking for the same result, either.

Second Chances is meant to inspire its readersand hopefully help them strive for something new, better, bigger. Help to see the positive, appreciate the unexpected, perhaps feel gratitude where one thought there was nothing to be grateful for. Within these pages, youll find people who have found new glimmers of light after losing their homes in fires, or suffering through Hurricane Sandy. The realizations that their families are safe and that they have new bonds with their communities opens up a new part of these peoples souls. And there are also contributors who have found that they have to do very little, really, to right a wrong or implement an improvement that will give them peace or a new outlook. I urge you to open your mind up to what a new beginning isnot always so linear as step one, step two. Start to realize that every bend in the road is part of what comes next.

But not every second chance needs to be so momentous and life-changing. Some folks here have said they try to be aware of new and more modest options daily. And you will find lightheartedness in these pages, believe me. Youll read stories that will delight you and many others that will feel very familiar. Perhaps familiar enough to make you reassess and try again.

Each one of these contributions is the story or musing of an ordinary personsome who have been through some very extraordinary things, and others, well, theyve got plans to change things around in life. The unifying thread is that they all have an ending that allows the storyteller to go forward with his or her life. Occasionally, its not what wed normally call a Happy Ending, but as one person noted about her experience, The sun came up again the next day, and then the next day, and the next day. And sometimes that is enough to begin a path to greater fulfillment.

And I can tell you that people found very different ways to tell their stories. Some were eager to recount well-worn tales they found comfort in. Others needed encouragement, then wrote to me later and said that having put words to paper about their experiences for the first time ever was cathartic in a way they never expected. And still others I had lengthy dialogues with, gently prodding them to recall and finally spill out their experiences. Several storytellers needed help writing about themselves, so we composed drafts together and they expanded and edited until their contributions felt like the stories they knew so well. I think I can say it has been an extremely heartfelt experience for all of us.

Of course, part of the purpose of this book is my desirefor myself and othersto not have to look back later and say, I wish I had... After writing her story, one woman said to me: Every moment offers a second chance; no feeling is final. We are on a journey to make ourselves more conscious, so every moment holds the potential for a new way.

If I were to say one thing about second chances, it would be this reminder: Everybodys had oneand everybodys got plenty more.

ERIN McHUGH

New York City, Spring 2016

I believe that I am given a second chance every day.

Every morning, I wake up and think that I can do it better today, do it right, whether its my job or the people I touch, or dont touchor maybe its exercise, or what I eat or drink, a kindness, a new interest, or how I relate to my children, or something I learn about myself.

Each day is a new beginning. Trite? Maybe.

But it works for me.

ELLEN

Once upon a time in the snowy mountains of the north lived a wild child who loved to ski. One cold and rainy January day, she decided to hit the slopes. She got a little ahead of herself on what would be her only run that day, hit some ice going way too fast, and fell hard, ending up in the treeslucky to have not actually hit onewith a severely broken leg. She was rushed to the hospital, where she would remain for the next ten days postemergency surgery.

One metal plate and nineteen screws later, she was out of the hospital and on crutches. This state of being would last about a year, which was followed by another surgery to implant yet another plate. Finally, after two years of healing, all the hardware was removed from her leg and the real recovery began. Her doctors cleared her for physical activity, and because she hadnt been very mobile for two years, she felt as though she had been given another chance, and she was itching to get her legs moving again. So she started slow and learned how to walk again, then how to run again. Once her atrophied muscles bulked up and her range of motion returned, she signed her sorry ass up for the New York City Marathon.

She dedicated all of her free time to training and was determined to run that damn race, and she did, finishing in four hours and sixteen minutes. It was one of the most special days of her life. The weather couldnt have been better and the crowd couldnt have been more cheerful. Friends and family were there to cheer her on along with perfect strangers. And though she crossed the finish line, she hasnt stopped running. Of course, that wild child is me.

MARTHA