My family and I decided to binge-watch the series For Life on Netflix over the holidays.
To be honest, I was hoping to find details online if Netflix is to continue the series. Sadly, I could not find any news if this was picked up for a new season. I hope it does since season 2 left their audience hanging on a thread when the producers/writers decided to tackle other issues like the Covid and the BLM movement. Because of this, other stories were pushed to the side. I still want to know how these stories end. My fingers are crossed for a season 3.
Anyway, we are here to discuss points from the series that I found to be eye-opening in my adult life. I hope these points would be of use in your personal journey too!
1. Life does not set us on straight paths (for some)
Some people have it good. They wake up one day with their whole life in their hands. They no longer need to worry about what they have to do for a living. Others may think they are on their life path to find the carpet pulled from underneath their feet. While some have to wave through life and bounce from one failed attempt to the next until something clicks.
Some people are just lucky. I, for one, have been floating by, not intentional in anything that I have to do.
In the case of Aaron Wallace, he placed his pieces of the puzzle intentionally to have them collapse in his hands. He then found his hands cuffed behind his back.
No one can exactly know what will happen tomorrow. We can have plans in our hearts, but the universe will have the final say. If you believe in a higher being, there is a plan for everything, even if things do not feel favorable at the moment.
Big blows to our plans, hopes, and dreams—although painful—are meant to help mold us for possibly better things. Most likely, these are things we do not even know yet. This leads me to my next point.
2. Sometimes you’ll have to start from nothing, all over again
(SPOILER ALERT!)
Aaron Wallace was on a path to success. He not only opened a new door, excited and ready to plunge his business to new heights with a new location, partners, and a new mortgage to fund the venture. Things were going great.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself with a life sentence. Some people would just look back to the good old days when they hit the peak of their career, reminisce the past, and live on, defeated. Our protagonist could’ve taken a plea deal, but he stood his ground. He knew in his heart he was not guilty. He refused to compromise his integrity for freedom.
With that, he put himself on a journey to prove his innocence. With nothing but his jail-issued jumpsuit, he studied to become a lawyer. He worked his way to finish the degree with no promise of freedom, no funds, and even without certainty of taking the bar.
He put himself on another path in life. Only the four corners of his cell were there to back him up. Even with the additional issues discussed in the next point, he kept going.
It is okay to start over. I have the biggest fear of letting go of stable things in my life. But since I want to start a career in a totally different field, I will have to start at the bottom and work my way up, and that is okay.
3. Best Believe in Yourself
Our protagonist lost his job and his house, his life, reputation, and to top it all off, he pretty much lost his family.
The people he shared everything with turned away when the gavel hit the jury said decided he was guilty.
He not only had to start from scratch to request a retrial, but he also had to face the fact that his best friend and wife gave up on him. It was more convenient for them to let go and move on with their lives than to stand by a convicted man.
Many people would prefer to take the easy path and not have to live with the package of being associated with a convicted criminal. As humans, we are always inclined to ease, not pain.
Even without the support of the people closest to this man’s heart, he pushed himself clear his name and take back his freedom. If his self-worth was founded on the thoughts and opinions of the people around him, he would have sulked away behind bars.
If Aaron saw himself through the lens of these people, he would not have reached the heights that he did as a lawyer.
The key here is he believed in himself when others did not.
4. Dreaming is different from having.
Reality can disillusion us.
Aaron dreamt of his freedom. The realization of the dream was far different from everything he was aspiring for. And because of the disparity between the two, he felt lost.
We all have a picture in our heads of the things we aspire. I want a job without a boss. The idea is picture-perfect. You hold your time, you don’t have to subject yourself to other people, and you no longer have to care for the goals of a company that can easily replace you.
In reality, you would have to be working your butt off to start up your company, maintain freelancing gigs, or even work on social media. I have seen videos of influencers saying they are way busier with that lifestyle compared to when they were working on a regular 9-5.
Not everything is rainbows and butterflies, and the faster you accept what is right in front of you (when you have achieved your dreams), the happier you will be. It may take time, but it may just be worth it.
5. Little victories still count in the fight against a larger system
In the end, our protagonist had a bigger fish to fry aside from being wrongly convicted. When the face of the true enemy was finally revealed it made it difficult for our protagonist to work on the smaller cases and other cases he cared about. Sacrifices had to be made to win other fights.
This made me realize how, sometimes, we could be so focused on the problem at hand that we tend to overlook the bigger picture or even the bigger goal at the end. Or sometimes, it is the other way around. We are too focused on the bigger picture we overlook the small battles and treat them with lesser significance.
Since we are looking through biased lenses, an outside force could be your best friend for more perspective. This was one of the main contributions of Safiya in the series as a whole. She may seem to cast a dark cloud over the endeavors of our dear protagonist, but sometimes he needed the awakening.
And so do you.
I have the hardest time making decisions. I am learning to approach more people about the situation I am in, something I would have otherwise kept to myself. In the end, I tend to make the wrong decisions with my emotional and biased lenses.
In the end, sometimes these wrong decisions may have even helped us to a better future, something we could not see at the moment.
Busyzi 