D # 4 Destiny

Destiny...is it a fixed sequence of inevitable events or can one choose or influence those events? Good question, eh? I am of the belief that true destiny is a magical brew of both.

Riddle me this. Was this destiny?

A high school senior badgers her parents to go away to college, she gets there and hates it. She drops out after three short weeks and spends the rest of the school year nannying and receptionist'ing. Applies to much bigger school, gets in and starts the following fall session, August 1986. Meets stupid boys. Parties hard. Loves big university.

A high school boy graduates and gets into local Penn State campus. Goes. Muddles through. Nearly drops out completely to "get a real job". Eventually decides he wants to actually go away to college and not live at home. Applies to same bigger school as high school girl. Gets in. Starts winter session, January 1987.

Boy ends up getting assigned a room on girl's floor in dormitory in January 1987. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy. Boy likes girl. Dating ensues, love ensues, twenty three years later, boy and girl still like each other. A lot.

Think about the random factors that got boy and girl to end up in the same dorm at the same time. Her hating first college, him wanting to go away, both choosing to apply to the same school, etc... To me, it smells a lot like destiny. And destiny smells good.

p.s. I'm girl and my husband is boy. Married 18 years this July.

Riddle me this? Was this destiny?

I write a novel the spring of 2008, my very first. The experience alters me permanently and deeply. The feedback is glowing, heck, I'm glowing. A new found desire emerges...publication. April 2008 begins my tumultuous query journey complete with dizzying highs and heartbreaking lows.

If you have followed my blog for a while you know this about me.
I.
Refuse.
To.
Give.
Up.

So, when I land an agent, will it be the destiny that I had no influence on? I say no way! I say every query and revision and edit and conference attended and blog read and crit group joined and new book written and minute spent researching...reading...thinking...was all me, baby. All me. I'M influencing my destiny. I'M pushing it along. I'M doing everything in my human power to make it really happen.

I guess I riddled my own riddle. Sorry 'bout that.

Hear me, blog readers and fellow writers in the struggle, hear me. Believe. Work. Do. Believe. Work. Do. Believe. Work. Do.

And destiny will be yours.