So this idea has been fresh in my head for a couple of weeks now, and it's finally time that I internally dialogue. Think about where you are in your life. The people you know, the friendships and relationships that you've made, the choices you've made...literally everything. I believe that for you to be in the exact place you're at in your life right now, everything that has happened to you in your years of life had to happen that exact way. It's similar to the butterfly effect. Sure, if one thing was off a handful of years ago, you might still be in >99% the same place you're at right now. But you wouldn't be 100% in the same place. Everything in your past is necessary for you to be where you are now. It's pretty simple when you think about it, but also very cosmical. I mean think about it - there are literally an infinite number of possibilities for the culmination of your life, but one out of those possibilities actually happened - this one.
Now there are two things I want to address with this idea - first off (this isn't even one of the things I want to talk about - think of this like "thing zero"), this is what I mean when I refer to Hindsight Symbolism. (For anyone who knows my Facebook religious views by heart, I believe in events as symbols that help guide me in the future. It's my own constructed belief/name and I'm sticking with it.) This isn't the same thing as predetermination at all, however. I do not believe that the rest of our lives are set in stone for us, and I do believe in free will. The claim I'm making here is that everything that's happened in our past was the only way to make us who we are in the exact present right now.
The other thing I want to talk about is the phrase "everything happens for a reason." That doesn't have to come into play with Hindsight Symbolism, because things that are seemingly unfavorable are just necessary parts to put you in the place you're in right now. (Editor's Note: The more I see "Hindsight Symbolism" capitalized, the less I want to capitalize it.) There's no need to rationalize it and see the good in the bad - just accept the bad for what it is and move on from there. One of the greatest pieces of advice I've read was in The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - "We cannot change the cards we're dealt; just how we play the hand." If you wake up in the morning and realize you're all out of the usual breakfast food, don't fret or complain about that - instead, have some cereal or something (unless cereal is your usual breakfast food. Then breakfast is futile).
Anyway, back to my point. Think of your life like a timeline. Most timelines we're familiar with are horizontal and straight. This one is too, but what's hidden is the realm of possibilities that never happened in your life - not going to school that one time, buying that really expensive thing you wanted....everything that isn't part of that timeline is speculation now. What exists in our lives is only that timeline, and we need to stay on that line knowing that what lies behind us might not necessarily have been for the best, but for the present. We couldn't have gotten here without the past, and we won't get to where we are in the future without what happens to us in the present.
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