"This I Believe" Rough Draft

There are some times when you ask the world, "Why is this happening to me?!". Whether it be stuck in traffic, the person you admire rejecting you, or having forgotten your homework at home when it was right there on the table with a big note saying "DONT FORGET!," there will always be a time when you would want to just turn back a day or two. But the sad fact is, you cant. Things like these have happened to me every so often, and if I still act the same now as I did in the past whenever that happened, I would probably be cursing nonsense in my mind, sitting in a chair, staring blankly at the wall.

For example, about four years ago, in 6th grade, I was taking a vocabulary test where the teacher would say a definition, and I would have to write down the word. I was doing very well on it too, that is, until my friend next to me dropped her pencil on the ground. I was nice enough to reach out and pick it up for her. She gave a thanks in return, but worst part was, I had lost track of which number we were on. Unable to talk during the test, I had to assume where I had last left off.

About a week later, I got the paper back, with 10 wrong, and a big fat F on it. I had the right words, just not in the right place. I confronted my teacher, but she refused to change my grade. My parents expected all A's from me at that time, so when I got home and showed it to them, I was lectured, and I couldn't go on the computer, which was my best form of entertainment back then. It traumatized me for a week, keeping me in a bad mood until I was able to use the computer again.

My outlook on such events in life started to change though in 8th grade, when my mom was driving me to school. I was almost late, so she was rushing. Unfortunately, we were hitting every red light, and frustration was the only thing in my mind. However, as the lights turned green, a car sped past right in front of us across the intersection. I realized that if we had not hit every red light, the car speeding could have hit us. I pondered on that moment for a while, until I came to the conclusion, "everything happens for a reason".

Ever since then, I've taken life more patiently, taking the awful things it throws at me, and rejoicing in the wonderful things. I've experienced carelessness in school, bad breakups, and more from that moment till now, but each bad thing has ended up helping me in life one way or another. But what was the reason for that vocabulary test incident? I still haven't figured any out. Maybe it was to teach me to not pick up people's pencils during tests, or maybe the answer is waiting for me in the future. Who knows? But what I do know, is that whether your hitting every red light, your boyfriend or girlfriend dumps you, or your computer freezes while you were doing an important essay and forgot to save it, everything happens for a reason.