Do you believe in Destiny?

Destiny is not a word that I throw around lightly. In my life there have only been a handful of times when I have used it or heard it used. The first instance was in middle school social studies when talking about the expansion of the U.S. to the West Coast as in Manifest Destiny. Then during the Yankees championship run in the late 1990's when somebody came up with a clever play on the interlocking NY at the end of the word (DestiNY). After that it didn't surface again until a recent trip into a strip club where I got a lap dance from a stripper named Destiny. And now Lost has it as a prominent theme woven intricately into it's plot. Other than those instances it has never come up. Until now that is.

You see I'm not a religious guy at all. I don't believe in God, the idea of Heaven and Hell, reincarnation or any of those other ideas. But there are a lot of things that I do believe in such as fate and karma and most of all, destiny. I don't believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason but I do believe that it's possible for SOME things to. Which is why after the events of this weekend I believe that it is now my destiny to become a writer.

The reasoning for my conviction is that my flight back to New York on Thursday night was delayed five hours when we had to abruptly land in an abandoned airport in Charlestown, South Carolina after a passenger smelt something towards the back of the plane. Ordnarily getting standed in an airport at 2 am would not be the talk of destiny but since I was originaly supposed to be on the 8:30 flight and switched at the last minute I'm lead to believe that I was supposed to be on that flight and that getting stuck at the airport was meant to happen.

If that's the case then it had to be for a reason. Something would have to happen during my layover to make it worthwhile. And sure enough I wound up meeting two great people, Jimmy and Nicole, that I wound up talking to the entire time. I'm usually a shy guy so the fact that I would even talk to strangers is weird in of itself. But talk I did. And what I got out of those conversations was inspiration. The new found inspiration that is to 'follow my heart' as Nicole said and become a writer.

Which is why I won't be terribly upset if I don't get to become a teacher. Now don't get me wrong. I'm still going to pursue a career in education. However, if I can't get a job I'm not going to take it the wrong way. I'm not going to look at it as a slap in the face or as a personal attack on my abilities. And I'm certainly not going to move back to New York a defeated man. Rather, I'm going to look at it as more destiny. As in I was supposed to get rejected so that I could be freed up to move to California and become the world's greatest screenwriter.

And if that does happen I'll know exactly who to thank.