Fate

I always hear that you "create your own fate" and I have a problem with that. I mean within reason it is relatively true. But can you control that your brother has a brain aneurysm? Or can you control that your grandfather gets cancer, twice? I don't believe so.

But the craziest part is that I watched them both go through it. I watched the human spirit survive in situations where they aren't suppose to. They were determined to win. Even with the odds stacked completely against them, they would not give in. I watched my brother get out of a hospital bed when he was suppose to be completely paralyzed on the left side of his body. He was so determined to walk again he did whatever he physically could. He tried everyday to stand until he could. I now watch my brother two years later running a mile, when he was told he wouldn't regain feeling in his left side ever again.

I watched my grandfather get out of bed when the chemotherapy had taken everything out of him. But he refused to miss the family that came to visit him and sacrificed himself to make sure he could put on a smile when they came. He told me "I can't lose to a situation that everyone else does. That would make me average. My whole life I've been above average, so how can I let your grandmother be another widow statistic? I can't."

With that kind of determination in my blood how do I even consider quitting anything? I can't. It's not even an option. Therefore when someone tells you that you control your own fate, maybe you should tell them a story about how your friend beat this, or your dad beat that. Even when all odds said no, they defied what it means to be determined. Therefore it's fate for them to have lived through the unexpected and change me into the person I've become today.

Who changed you to become the person you are today? Because that's fate. You don't get to choose that. It just happens.

The amazing part about life, is you'll never know who'll change you tomorrow.