Having Faith in Fate

I believe that sometimes in life, it is necessary to have faith in fate. Recently, a very close and dear friend of mine passed away; Zach Strong. He died from a much unexpected heart attack at the age of only 20 years young. He had a great job that he was very proud of. He, unlike most his age, was completely clean of any drugs or alcohol. He was friendly, smart and quite hilarious. I find it ironic that he died from a heart attack seeing that everyone who knew him said he had the biggest and most amazing heart. And it’s true; he was such a loving and caring person, always putting the consideration of others before him. Therefore, it broke my heart when I heard he had passed away.

Before Zach’s death, I was lucky enough never to have had to cope with the pain and grief that comes with the death of a friend or family member. Unfortunately, my inexperience with death left me completely unprepared for the emotional overload that took over me during and following Zach’s funeral service. Listening to his family members talk about all the good memories with Zach and all of his dreams and aspirations left my face in tears, my heart in pain, and my mind in question and confusion. How could someone so healthy and happy, with so much ahead of them, have their life ripped right out from under their feet? I found it extremely wrong and unfair, and frankly, even more unbelievable.

However, in the midst of all my heartache and indignation, I realized that I needed to accept things for what they were and just have some faith. Not faith in a person, a god, or any religion but instead I believe in putting my faith in fate. We do everything they can to live a successful and fulfilling life. We don’t smoke to prevent cancer, we drink milk to build strong bones, and we lock our doors at night to be safe. But not everything turns out the way we think it should. When something happens for seemingly no reason, whether it is good, bad, big or small, I just accept it as fate. Like when non-smokers get lung cancer and when we do all we can to make things right, but somehow things still go wrong; when Zach died at the tender age of 20. I believe that these happenings are all a part of our fate. We need to believe that even when something is all wrong, it’s alright because for every death there is birth, for all the hate there is twice as much love, and behind every cold tear there is an even warmer, brighter smile. So now, instead of wondering why such a tragic thing happened to Zach, I sit and wonder what positive thing happened in result of his death. Perhaps, if the paramedics hadn’t rushed to his aid, something even more tragic could have happened. Maybe, in some way, Zach died in order to save the lives of others. No one will ever know for sure, but that’s okay by me, because in the course of all the madness, I still believe in fate.