Everything Happens...

"We are the reckless,
We are the wild youth,
Chasing visions of our futures..."
-Youth by Daughters

Good morning, beautiful readers. I apologize that it's been a couple weeks. I've been very busy.

When I was a kid, I believed in karma and the universe always having a way of working everything out. I used to fantasize about the way I believed things would work. Then, I grew boobs and decided that there is nothing and would never be anything. A joy to my parents (and yes, that is sarcasm), I constantly lived in a hopeless mind I had created for myself.

But in this past year, everything has changed. In all the things I experienced--the engagement, the miscarriage, the breakup--I began to see the beauty in what was meant to happen. It hit me first with this epiphany: While Joe Schmoe and I were fighting (which was just weeks of love and hate), I went to the bank with him. All the computers, they said, were down and I would have to come back later. So I took Joe to work, with the intent of coming back later. I dropped him off and he said he wasn't sure if our love would survive. I was stubborn, so I argued with him extensively that it would.

I went back to the bank, bleary eyed and crushed. In the parking lot, I thought to myself, "if Joe and I are meant to be, the computers will be back up and running when I come in." I have secretly set myself up for disappointment many times. I knew I couldn't take it as a sign either way. Still, I knew what I hoped for. I walked in the bank and the computers were still down. But then, "wait! I think it's working!" and suddenly the computers were fixed.

I went home thinking that Joe and I were destined to be together forever. But now I look back. I know that Joe and I are not and could never be soulmates. So what gives? It was too close to be a coincidence. But I know remember what I had thought, "if Joe and I were meant to be..." We were meant to be together for that time. I believe I was meant to be in that exact situation with that exact person for that exact amount of time.

This is how I got over the worst breakup I've ever gone through. Mind you, I lay no blame in Joe. He's a twenty year old kid. He has just about as much sense of the world (potentially less) than me. Everytime I feel hopeless, I want to give up, etc., I remember that, yes,

Everything happens for a reason.

Looking back, had things ended before, I may not have survived the breakup. Had things ended later, I would have spent (would be spending) this entire Summer in fear and hurt.

As a society, I feel like we are stuck on things that suck and hurt so much that we are completely blind to the things that come out of them. We--myself included--tend to look back and think about how things could have gone instead of seeing the way things really went and the results of it.

So here is what I ask of you today, take a look back on one situation that you think could have gone better. Then, pull a sort of six degrees. Write down everything (good and bad) that happened as a result. Send them in and I will post them all on my page (please include in your email if you want to remain anonymous).

Send them into: alyeskanstars@gmail.com