Life: One Big Game of Chess

From the time that we’re old enough to know right from wrong or to know the consequences of our decisions our lives become much more complicated. We’re no longer able to use the excuse “I didn’t know”. Once we begin to mature and take control of our lives we look back wishing, with nostalgia, and longing for times of little or no responsibility that we took for granted as children. But as we grow older life becomes a game of chess; full of decisions and moves that require strategy and anticipation and thinking two moves ahead of your opponent. And make no mistake, we all have our opponents. Pawns that are easily expendable that we use as we begin learning the consequences of our decisions, our mistakes that we learn from in order to use later on in life. Once our pawns are taken from us we begin to realize that we’re vulnerable, not as strong as we once thought and that we have fewer and fewer moves to make. We start looking outside the box and widening our horizons in an attempt to avoid making the same mistakes that cost us our pawns. We start looking to our Knights, Rooks and our Bishops to take the front lines in place of our long gone pieces that we thought were invincible. Although stronger and able to move farther and in more directions, our Knights, Rooks and Bishops slowly get picked off, one by one, as a price we pay of more poor decisions and sacrifices in order to protect the King. Knights- being limited to short moves, yet more than the pawn; Rooks- able to travel the distance of the board but only in the same row in which they already stand; Bishops- able to move diagonally but limited to the same color squares: all pieces that are restricted and unable to roam freely, allowing them to be taken as a result in more poor decision making. Finally, this leaves us with our Queen and our King; unmistakably the most two important pieces of the game, the pieces that we must protect at all costs. These are the pieces that pay for all of those dumb mistakes and to which all of those sacrifices were made. The Queen and The King. What is one without the other? Because, in the end, all they have are each other. They can’t always depend on others to protect them and they have to stick together. Everyone has their own King and Queen that they will make the ultimate sacrifice to save. The Queen is able to move in any and all directions, taking out all threats to her King: the most vicious yet loving piece on the board. If she is gone, the King is gone. Without the Queen there is no King. Even in the end they go out together.

There is no one single piece in Chess as there is no one single person in life. Yes, it may be your life, but we all need our pawns, our rooks, our bishops, our knights, our Queens, and our Kings if we’re going to checkmate our opponent in our ultimate pursuit of happiness. If we continue to ignore what’s right in front of us and never take risks, we will always lose to our opponents and at every turn we will continue to hear the word “Checkmate”. So learn from your pawns, learn from your mistakes and don’t be afraid to take risks and make sacrifices for those that you love and care about most because, in the end, nothing else matters. Whatever or whomever your opponent may be, don’t let them outwit you and always remember to think two moves ahead in the pursuit of your own true happiness.