Waiting for the Net to Appear

Take a look around. How did you get where you are? I don't want to know if you walked, or drove-what I mean is, how did you arrive at your current station in life? Was there one big event in the past that changed everything for you, or has it been a series of minor decisions? Did you stumble into school at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB), or was it more of a struggle? However it happened, as students we share the commonality that we have made the choice to attend school here at CSUMB. It's easy to say that this reality is the result of circumstance, and coincidence. It's also easy to say that we are all here together for some unknown, greater reason. Does anyone really know whether something is destined? A twenty-something has to wonder.

One of my favorite actors Matt Damon (aging beautifully I should add) has spoken in interviews of how fate played a heavy hand in his life when it came to meeting his wife. He just walked into a bar, and she was working there, and that was it. That was her. He seems assured of this fact now, but at the time, what had that been like? Was there ever a time that he thought to himself: "This is crazy, I can't love the waitress, I'm fucking Matt Damon!"

When it comes to fate, people generally are one of two ways: some respond to fate eagerly, calling it by name, willing to abandon past notions and routines. And some people ignore fate, refuse it and believe that nothing ever "happens for a reason".

Is it fate, or chaos?

We've all landed in our current lives, as our current selves, from somewhere in the past. What happened before has left its mark on our faces and we carry the past around, seeing it on each other. Maybe you're someone who has just gone through a break-up, or you lost your job last month and you're searching for a meaning in the change. You're hoping that fate will step in and explain itself. Or maybe you've just gotten married, and you reflect on what would have happened if you had missed meeting this person you just married, if missing it was even possible. Could missing it be possible?

Apparently, Matt Damon didn't want to miss it, something compelled him to go for the woman who is now his wife. He calls it fate, but what it really comes down to is one's willingness to leap. In life, things are going to happen, whether or not you're paying attention. You can roll through the days, smugly recognizing synchronicity as coincidence, or you can seize opportunities as they come to you. Resistance to change holds all of us back at one point or another. Knowing when to leap is tricky, but whether or not you believe destiny is going to catch you, you have to leap for the net to appear.