Greetings everyone,trust you all are doing great.
If life ever offered second chances,I know exactly where I’d go first: back to the place where my father’s laughter still lived, where his voice still rolled through the house like morning sunshine, and where I never doubted for a moment that I was loved. I would run straight into those memories and hold them tighter than I ever knew to hold them then.
Growing up as the first child in the family, I was my dad’s best baby. Not because I was perfect, but because he loved me with a fullness that made me feel like I was the brightest part of his world. His pride in me showed in small things,the way he called my name, how he corrected me, how he celebrated the little victories of my growing life.
But life, uninvited, rewrites our stories. My dad is late now,gone from this world, but not from my heart. And it’s only when someone you love becomes a memory that you truly understand the weight of moments you once took for granted.
If I could have a second chance…
I would listen more and speak less.
I would study his silence the way one studies scripture.
I would ask him more about his dreams, his fears, his childhood,though he shared a little.
I would memorize the sound of his footsteps, his laughter, his lessons.
I would say “I love you” more often, not assuming that tomorrow would always grant me another opportunity.
I would watch the way he lived,how he carried his burdens, how he protected his family, how he stood strong in moments that would have broken others. I would ask him how he learned to forgive so easily. I would ask him how he managed to carry all the weight he did without letting it crush us.
Mostly, I would thank him properly,deeply,honestly for the sacrifices I didn’t understand at the time, for the wisdom he tried to plant in me and my siblings, and for the unconditional love he never failed to give.
But through the ache of missing him, I have learned something:
A second chance sometimes comes as a reminder,a reminder to love better,to be present,to cherish people while they are here,to carry forward the values of those we’ve lost.
I cannot go back and live those days again. But I can live forward in a way that honors him. I can become the kind of person he believed I could be,the kind of person he raised his best baby to become.
So if I could have a second chance, I’d spend it not trying to change the past… but trying to live a future he would be proud of.
And in that way, he never truly leaves. He lives on,and in my choices, my strength, and the love I carry for him every single day.