Excuse my language, but my answer to this question is: abso-fuckin-lutely. And I say that with my whole chest. In fact, this may be another hill that I’m willing to die on. Now, what is the cause of things happening, that is debateable. For a good long time, I believed that what happened in my life was the result of God’s plan for me. I’m not as religious as I used to be and I am well aware that there are a large number of people who don’t believe in God. But even if I was one of the non-believers, I would still think that there is a reason for everything. There have been too many things that have happened in my life that I didn’t understand at the time, but then found out years later that something else happened because of that thing that did or didn’t happen in the past.
The biggest and most profound example I can think of is how I came to be a teacher at the Catholic school where I worked for 19 years. I almost didn’t apply to work there. I used this story in my religion classes to teach my students about God having a plan for all of us. And the story is this:
When I was in my third year of college, I had to take a semester off of school. I’ve written before about the ECT treatments I had to have during that semester off. My mental health was the lowest it had ever been and my psychiatrist gave me no choice but to take off that semester and have those treatments. I agreed, because I recognized that I had no choice. He had the authority to get a court order or whatever he had to do to make me go. But while I did agree and went voluntarily, I was extremely distressed about it. I had a rock solid 4 year plan for finishing school and getting my teaching degree and starting my teaching career. My graduation date was May of 2004. All future semesters of classes were meticulously planned out. But, I had to do it. I took the semester off and postponed graduation.
I successfully graduated in December of 2004. So, still 2004, just in the winter and not the spring. And that’s where the reason for everything became clear. Well, not until years later did I realize the benefit of what happened.
When I was applying for teaching jobs, I focused solely on the public school system. I went to career fairs, handed out resumes, all the things. After all, my college classes had focused on preparing us to be teachers in the public school system. Also, side note, even further back than my third year of college, when I was in high school, I was rejected from receiving the Teaching Fellows scholarship. If I had gotten that scholarship (which I so desperately wanted), I would have had to repay it by teaching for four years in the public schools of North Carolina. I’d have seven years to get those four years done.
So when I was applying for jobs, I focused on public schools. But it was the winter, they didn’t really need teachers right then. So I didn’t hear back from any of them for a long time. In the meantime, Josh’s mom saw in the bulletin of the church that was connected to the Catholic school that they were looking for a 3rd grade teacher to start in January because the current teacher was going to have to move because her husband was in the army and they were pcs’ing (PCS=Permanent Change of Station). My mother-in-law showed me the bulletin and encouraged me to apply. I wasn’t so sure about it. A private school? Me? Really? But, I had done my student teaching semester in a third grade class so I was well qualified to be a third grade teacher. So I applied.
And wouldn’t you know it, the principal of the Catholic school called me for an interview almost immediately. Two of the public schools called me after that but they said that since I was already involved in the interview process at a school, they couldn’t continue to pursue me as an employee.
Well, Sister Margaret Mary, after praying about me and the other person who applied, picked me. And my fate as a Catholic school teacher was sealed.
If I got that scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to take a job at a private school.
If I hadn’t taken that semester off, I would have graduated in May and gotten a job much more easily in a public school, since that’s when they do their hiring.
I didn’t get that scholarship and I had to take a semester off for a reason. That reason was leading me to that Catholic school. For better or for worse. That school changed my life, again, for better, then for worse, then for better.
And as a matter of fact, I questioned why that mentor of mine called me that day and berated me as badly as she did. I thought God was telling me that I should stay there. That’s why I had taken back my resignation. So why would He have her call me and say all those things to me that made me quit? It was for a reason. I wouldn’t have quit when I did if she hadn’t done that.
See? EVERYTHING is for a reason. I was led to that school for a reason, and I left for a reason. Now look at me. Happier than I’ve ever been. I don’t regret having worked at that school. It was necessary. I could write a whole other post about how and why it was necessary, but I think you get the point.
There are other things that have happened in my life that I can recognize as happening for a reason. Even losing my child to miscarriage. There was a reason. And I may be wrong about what the reason was, but I feel in my heart that there were many reasons for it and it gives me comfort in the grief.
Again, everything absolutely happens for a reason. Whether we understand the reason or not, whether we attribute the behind-the-scenes to a higher power or not, there is still a reason. In fact, wasn’t there a whole song in the 60s or 70s about this very thing? Turn, turn, turn or something like that? A time to…something. I’m not from that generation but I did see “Forrest Gump” multiple times and I know that song was in the movie and on the soundtrack I owned. What can I say?
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