Second Chances - Television Series "how I Met Your Mother"

People always tend to tell us to forgive and forget, but it's not as easy as it seems. Sometimes, people do unimaginably dire actions, without any disregard for our emotions, and we're expected to turn the other cheek. At that moment in time, many of us would feel like the person who has hurt us, should just be dead to us because of the internal scars we have to bear. It gets even harder to forgive, the closer the person is to us, because they have a better image of our emotion maps, thus leaving even bigger scars. Thus, it makes it even harder for us to give them a second chance.

However, what many of us do not realize is that, the closer they are to us, the bigger the impact they leave on our lives. And we have to give them a second chance, to make things right.

In the popular television series "How I Met Your Mother", Barney Stinson portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, is a man who grew up without a father, and lives a life of one night stands. He spends the first 5 seasons trying to avoid asking his mother who is father is, preferring to believe in a lie. In season 6, he finally meets his dad, Jerome, who turns out to be a typical suburban dad, with a typical family living in the suburbs. When Barney finds out about Jerome's new life, he shouts at Jerome "If you were going to be some lame suburban dad, why couldn't you be that for me." With this, Jerome shouts back "I want to fix this but i don't know how", and Barney storms out, not wanting Jerome to play a role in his life. However, a couple of episodes later, we see that, after spending a night on in the town, Barney opens up to Jerome and admits that, even though he loves his life, he does not know if he likes loving it, and he asks Jerome for direction.

Barney somehow manages to swallow his pride, asks his dad for the way, and gives him a do over. Yeah, it's a show, so actors just follow the script, but many shows and stories are based on what happens on the ground level. In Singapore, divorce rates for those above the age of 25 years old rose in 2010 by nearly 2%, and more and more of our youth are being raised by single parents. More and more children are being put in the same situation as Barney. What if, one day, that turns out to be us? How would you react?

Are you going to wait years before we start to forgive, or would you start that rebuilding process immediately? How long would you take, to give someone a second chance?