Fate, Coincidence, and Just Plain Luck

As I see it, there are three major things in life that seem to have a great effect on us. In an instant, these forces can change our lives drastically, sometimes for good, and sometimes for bad. We could be thinking one thing one moment, and the next, have completely different thoughts. These forces can cause great happiness and end deep sorrow, yet they can also destroy hope and bring depression upon one. They guide the way our life unfolds before us, and occasionally add unexpected turns and twists. This uneven path can bring difficulties and fortunes along.

What are these forces?

Fate, coincidence, and luck can control the way we live our lives.

As I go about my days, I often find myself thinking deeply. I like to unravel the way we live and really think about everything. Of course questions that could never be answered always come along, as there are infinite possibilities and understandings that our meager minds could never possibly reason. Life in general is a mystery that gives few answers, yet there are people who constantly search for them.

While thinking deeply to myself, (usually alone,) I come across realizations and questions. I ponder of events that have happened to me and question why things have happened. I often review things, correcting mistakes that I come across and figuring ways to make everything better. Perhaps this is why I am so observant.

The other day, as I sat on my couch and turned my TV to NBC to watch one of my favorite shows, Heroes, I found that one of my favorite game shows, Deal or No Deal, was still showing. I didn’t mind the five-minute wait and noticed that it was ending anyways as the contestant had just taken a deal. In the game show, there are twenty-six or so cases that hide various amounts of money ranging from a penny to one million dollars. You are to choose a case, then to open six cases at first. When you open low numbers, it is time to celebrate for you know that that amount is not in your case. As you work your way through the cases, trying to narrow it down to figure out what amount is hiding in “your” case, you are offered a deal every now and then. Based on the odds, your deals will increase and decrease. You have the option of accepting or refusing a deal once it comes up, but once you decide, you can’t change your mind.

The man from the show that was currently showing had just accepted a deal of two hundred something thousand dollars and was about to find out what “his” case had contained. As my dad found that I had entered the living room, he told me that this man was foreign and said that his parents had come into America with only $750. He found it ironic that the last three amounts on the board between the two cases and the man’s case were $75, $750, and $750,000. As the host, Howie, asked the contestant what case he would have picked had he not accepted the deal, he pointed to the one on the right. The case opened to reveal $750,000 meaning that “his” case held either $75 or $750. When his case was opened, it unveiled $750, the same amount that his parents had come to America with.

As Howie gave the case to the contestant’s parents who were sitting in the audience, it made me think of fate, luck, and coincidence. I found that this game had resembled something in the man’ s life as he had $750 and made something out of it. By going through the “difficulties in life,” narrowing down the amounts on the board, he took what he had and turned it into $200,000. Although it might have been just a TV game show, it made me wonder. I don’t exactly know how to put my thoughts into words, but it was odd.

Fate is life itself. It is the way life unveils before us, and I am not sure if I even believe in “fate”. Some say that fate rules over our lives and controls everything that happens while others say that fate is what we are destined to do. Some believe that their purpose in life is to find what their purpose is. They spend their whole lives wandering “lost” in the world as they try to find what is their destiny. Fate.

With $75, $750, and $750,000 left after he had spoken of his parents when they ventured here…I would call that coincidence. Another of life’ s many mysteries are coincidences. Are they acts of fate? Are they purposely placed in our lives and are planned out? I don’t exactly think so, but I know that some believe so. Coincidences can sometimes be very farfetched and can be unbelievable. Sometimes there is no explanation to how something happened, just that it did.

As I listened to my science teacher, Mr. Potts, speak today, I was amazed to hear him tell a story of a bird at a baseball game. He explained to our class that the instant a pitcher pitched his ball to the batter, it hit a bird about halfway down its course. He said that the bird had flown between the pitcher and the batter at just the right moment to obliterate into a burst of feathers. It may seem unbelievable in ways, and to think of the odds, you would probably run into infinity. Coincidences can be very interesting and can puzzle our minds until we can no longer come to a conclusion. “Simply a coincidence,” one would say.

Some people believe in the last force, while others do not. I don’t think that I am a believer of luck. I am not sure what people explain luck to be as it is another of the influential unseen forces in life, however it is all around us as we go about our lives. I would most likely define luck as any event that happens in our lives, for there is bad luck and good luck. People go about saying that they are having a lucky day, or an unlucky one, or they explain that they were lucky when they won the lottery. Is it possible to have good and bad luck or is it just a twist of fate and coincidence. Does luck even exist?

Perhaps we are confusing the three forces with each other. Was it fate that led the winning ticket to the unsuspecting person; was it destined to be, or was it a coincidence that his numbers matched up. Perhaps it was luck in which the person chose the winning numbers. With a simple twist of life’s events it can make some believe in fate, luck, and coincidence. The forces can change from one to another as events happen and come about, yet we always try to find some explanation. However people may explain the events that happen in their lives, it makes me think and wonder. There are so many unanswered questions in this world.