Are Things in Life Predetermined for Us?

Do you believe in fate? Do you believe in soul mates? Or perhaps you think that each action creates a ripple effect in time? For me, I like to find reasons behind what happened. It just helps me process it better – maybe that’s you too. It helps me learn from what went wrong or gives me confidence that I did what I thought was best during that time.

This truly came to light for me over a 3-year period. It was my senior year in high school and ever since I was a freshman, I told myself I was going to be a State FFA Officer. It was a goal, a dream of mine and when I set my sights on something you bet it was going to happen.

Well, I put my application in, went through the entire interview process, gave a speech and waited a long time until they announced the winner. Lights circling, nerves in my stomach and a loud booming voice says, “And your 2008-2009 Southeast State Vice President is….” Not me. I dropped to my knees completely heartbroken. How could this be? Why did this happen to me?

Just like a good farm kid, I brushed myself off and picked myself back up again. One loss wasn’t going to keep me down. So I waited another year – a long 365 days. Once again I put in my application, did the interview process, gave a speech and waited until they announced the winner 2 days later. Lights circling, nerves in my stomach and a loud booming voice says, “And your 2009-2010 Southeast State Vice President is….” ME! In shock I ran to the stage just so excited that all my hard work had paid off.

Right after the announcement and the congratulatory line our new team of officers were escorted to the new/old officer supper meeting. There were tables with white tablecloths, backpacks for the new officers and our names on name tags – just all waiting for us.

Two years later after serving as a state FFA officer and then the FFA intern, I hadn’t given that moment much thought until as the FFA intern I got to help print the name tags and help set up that room. And as I’m doing it I realized all that worrying, all that nervousness didn’t matter and likely wasn’t necessary. My fate had already been determined long before I stepped into that meeting room that night after my name was announced. (Okay so it was only like 2 days, but in nervous Nelly waiting time that’s years!).

To me, this truly opened my eyes. It showed me that sometimes worrying is just a waste of time. There are things that are going to happen. There are things that aren’t going to happen. We need to live a bit more in the presence – where our feet are planted. Why? Because I truly believe some things in our life are predetermined for us and worrying isn’t going to help that. So live in the present, live in the moment – we only get one life.