by Andy
Why give someone a second chance, or many chances? “Many people have never been given a second chance” other people may say. But everybody gets many chances in life by getting to live every day. I’ve been given chances that I didn’t know I was getting until I realized that I get chances every day by getting to wake up every day.
I’ve been incarcerated for about one year and nine months. It seems as time went by quick. A year and nine months ago was my sister’s graduation. She was graduating from elementary school. I never made it because that day I was incarcerated. I was involved in a gang, which is a worldwide gang. I remember going out with the “homies” riding around the “hood” looking for trouble, and coming back home around two or four in the morning. Many people may think that gangs are the answer to their problems, but it never is because being in gangs could cause your family more harm. It leads to death, incarceration, or it can leave you scarred for life.
I was incarcerated when I was fifteen, now I’m seventeen. I’ve realized so many things that I could have done differently. I could have spent more time with my brothers/sister, mom and dad. Now that I think about it, I should have valued what I had when I was out. Since being here in juvenile hall, I’ve had many family members pass away and I can’t do anything about it. Many of you who read this may relate to what I say, and many of you won’t. Many of us are getting a second chance to be free, and I hope you make it better than the way you lived before. A lot of us want to make our parents proud, and a lot of other people want to make themselves proud. No matter what your circumstances are, you will have a second chance and take that as an advantage to do your best. We have to be grateful for what we have because others are in worse circumstances than we are. Although I believe everyone deserves a second chance, there are some people who mess up that second chance because they don’t realize that they’re running out of chances.
I hope that you related to this because most of us could relate, because we all went through the same situations. Most of our families have no jobs, money, clothes, food, so we believe that we need to provide for our families. Most people would look for jobs, but the majority of youth will burglarize and sell drugs just to provide for their families. Many will get second or many chances and ruin it.
Nobody realized what they’re doing wrong until they get locked up for a long time. This is the way I learned that the actions I was doing was wrong. I’m most likely headed to YA for about four to six years, which would be six to eight years locked up. I am grateful because I got a second chance to go home and do things differently. Everyone should practice gratitude. Many people won’t be going home, so we should be thankful – thankful that we got a second chance.