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Shea Stanley
Connie Douglas
UWRIT 1100
September 1, 2014
Everything Happens For a Reason
As time goes on, the world around us changes as well. The thoughts and
views of people are formed through what we hear, see, think, and do. Isnt that
where beliefs originate? The people that are involved in their lives can form ones
beliefs within the environment they grew up in. That is where my beliefs originate.
My strongest belief that I have right now though is that everything happens for a
reason because there is a plan for all of us, I believe in destiny and fate. Like
Randy Pausch said in the Last Lecture, Follow your passions, believe in karma,
and you wont have to chase your dreams, they will come to you. Most people
probably question the things that happen in their lives, good or bad. For me, I just
accept the things that happen and realize thats how they were meant to be.
Fate in my mind is defined as the things and events that occur in our lives
every day. People cant control their fate, but a higher power can. I was raised in a
Catholic family, to believe in God and the Holy Spirit. I do believe in these things,
that there is a place after this life, but I am not strict on my religion alone. Like
Amy Tan said in her lecture, she was never alone when she wrote, that the
universe creates accidents happen that are in store for our future. I believe our
fate is destined long before we are born; everything that happens in our lives has

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already been planned out and now is just following its due course. I believe in fate
and destiny because of my religious beliefs, which were also expressed, through
my family. Every time something went wrong, I would ask them why things
happened, they would reply with that was Gods plan. For example from the tale
of the Book of Eli, Eli believed in the journey that God entrusted upon him. His
fate was to bring the book West, no matter how long it took him he trusted in his
faith of God to control his fate. I truly started to believe in fate when I lost my
grandma. I questioned and tried to reason with why she would be taken away from
me, but over the years, I have realized that that was supposed to happen. It was her
time to move on and my fate to move on in my life without her. I learned that
things wouldnt always go my way, no matter how badly I wanted them to be, I
just needed to accept the things that occur and move on with my life.
With this as my belief, it takes an effect into my life every day. You could
think that fate only comes into play with things like true love or even death. If you
really think about it, its the things we do every day. The choices of where we go,
whom we talk to, what we see, and even decisions in which we choose yes or no.
For example, from the Sponsors of Literacy, the author speaks of how our literacy
can form from the sponsors in which we surround ourselves. Our fate can be
formed the same way, by the people you surround yourselves and the things we do
as well. Little things like that can affect the things you do later on in your day or
even later in the future. The reason as to why I believe in fate is because I actually
notice it happening in my everyday life. Just being in college has brought me to

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people I never would have met otherwise. For example, if I had assigned a
different floor, roommate, or even a different building I would, I never would have
met the friends I have now. Things like that work in mysterious ways but Im
grateful for the ways things turn out, good or bad.
My belief in fate doesnt mean that I dont generally believe that we dont
make our own choices every day. It just means that I believe our choices are
guided for the better, its the little nudge that everyone needs. No matter who it is
or what they believe in, everyone has a fate and a destiny. Someone may or may
not notice it taking an effect into their daily lives, and its okay that they dont.
Fate is a weird thing but I believe that its a real factor that is imprinted into our
lives. All you have to do is just take a step back to think about it to notice.

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Work Cited

"Randy Pausch Quotes." Randy Pausch Quotes (Author of The Last

Lecture). N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.
"Where Does Creativity Hide?" Amy Tan:. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept.
2014.
Silver, Joel, Denzel Washington, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A.
Kosove, David Valdes, Gary Whitta, Atticus Ross, Gary Oldman,
Jennifer Beals, Michael Gambon, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, and la T.
F. De. The Book of Eli. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2010
College Composition and Communication, Vol. 49, No. 2 (May, 1998),
165-185.