“Everything happens for a reason.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this, and it never really helps.
“I’m sorry your dog ran away, but everything happens for a reason.”
“You and your best friend drifted apart? Well, everything happens for a reason.”
I’m even guilty of uttering this phrase myself, but coming from a family who believes that the universe can thwart even the best of intentions, it’s just become a reflex, an utterance of comfort that does nearly the opposite. But, even knowing this, I do truly believe that “everything happens for a reason.”
Freshman year was the perfect example of this. I made two friends who I had believed would be my “pack” for the remainder of our days. However, four weeks in, we had a falling out, and now my fight-or-flight reflex kicks in even seeing them around, (for the record, it usually results in flight). It may take a while to find for what reason everything happens, but looking back on the situation, I realized our friendship hadn’t been stable in the first place, and that I was able to bring them together, while making healthy friendships besides them. Whether you call it fate, bad luck or simply a bad pairing of people, the experience changed how I thought my freshman year would go, and, as it seems now, for the better.
Even in my professional career, I’ve seen instances of the universe taking over. I have been planning all semester to audition for the voice program at my university. Taking lessons, spending as much time perfecting a secondary instrument as I could, I felt totally prepared. Until this mystery illness hit. I struggled the entire week with intense cold symptoms, going through my primary trumpet jury and finals week foggy and froggy. The morning of the audition, I woke up unable to hear out of my left ear. All things working against me, I was denied acceptance. I’m still trying to figure out why the universe threw me into this, but I guess I was lucky I was able to maintain a little bit more health going through finals week. Soon enough, I’m sure I’ll find out some crazy reason as to why I should focus on one major. But, as my voice teacher told me while I was writing this, “Everything happens for a reason.”
So don’t just brush off those people who tell you that your boyfriend dumped you for a bigger, universal reason. They mean well; they just, like me, believe in fate a bit too much. Pain often blinds us to opportunities arising, so pick yourself up from being bucked off the horse. Get on the back of a new one! The universe works in mysterious ways.
