Recently, many students here at Otemae had the speaking test last Sunday for the Eiken examination. How was it? How did you do? Was the test easy? Did you pass the test?

I hope so. I hope you could pass the Eiken interview test and get a good Eiken result.

But… maybe you did not do well. Maybe you were very nervous. Maybe you had a panic feeling and you could not answer the questions well. So, now you feel so bad. You had a bad interview and you feel like you will never, never, never do the Eiken test again.

Really?

But you can do it again. You can go and try again next time. You can have a “second chance”.

I like the expression “second chance”. I think about many times in my life when I had a mistake. Sometimes I remember a time when I did something that was wrong, or I had an accident, or I said something that was not correct, or I said something that was not kind.

Sometimes we cannot get a second chance. But sometimes we are lucky and really can have a second chance to try again. We can try to repair a mistake. We can try to correct a situation. We can try one more time.

I think that it is a wonderful thing to get a second chance.

But how can we give a second chance to other people around us? Did you have a time when a friend said something bad to you? Did you have an experience when someone damaged your relationship with you? Did that person say to you that they were sorry? Did someone apologize to you?

If someone hurt you and says, “I am sorry”, it might be a time for a “second chance”. You do not have to give someone a second chance who deeply hurts you. No, that is not necessary, but there might be times when someone makes a mistake. Maybe we can think about when we could give someone a second chance. A second chance can change everything.

There are a few reasons why giving someone a second chance is a great idea.

The first reason is that when you give a second chance to someone else, you can feel better. To say, “That’s okay” when someone apologizes to you, gives you some confidence and some emotional power. Your brain will be calmer.

The second reasons is that sometimes when someone makes a mistake, and we give them a second chance, they might change their life. Helping someone grow and change is a good thing for everyone.

The third reason is that to be angry at another person for a long time needs a lot of your energy and your time. When you can say in your heart, “It’s okay. I don’t want to be angry about this anymore”, you can feel more free in your heart and in your mind. You save your time. You save your energy. Those are good things.

The fourth reason is that maybe someday you might make a mistake. You might make a bad choice. If that happens, maybe you might need a friend to say, ”It’s okay, let’s have a second chance to do better”.

These are four good reasons to give other people a second chance. We are all human. We all make mistakes. We all fall down. Sometimes giving another person a second chance is very hard. And there are times when no second chances are possible. But, if we want to live a good life in harmony with other people we should think about times when we can give second chances to other people in our lives. One day, it might be you who would like a second chance to try again.