Try, Try Again

Although it seemed like forever, it was actually only a few weeks after his self-inflicted demise that Roc pushed his coffee cup away after breakfast one Saturday and said: "I think I want to try again."

I took a deep breath, and looked at him, really looked at him.

"Are you ready? Are you sure?" I didn't think my heart could take another episode like the one we had just experienced.

"Yeah." He nodded with conviction. "I'm going to call the guy on Monday and see how I go about the whole thing...that is, if they'll still have me."

"They'll take you. That's not the issue. Roc, listen to me." I waited until he looked me directly in the eyes. "It's not about going back. It's about coming up with a better plan. You can't just go back with the same outlook, the same scheduling issues...feeling torn by the business, feeling that you have to be there every day. You need to come up with a better plan and then stick to it."

"I know."

"Do you?"

"Yeah." A pause. "I need your opinion. Can you help me?"

And just like that, we dove in again.