Isn’t Destiny Overrated? #51

“Everything happens for a reason” – I strongly believe in destiny. This belief motivates me to consider the reasons behind everything that has any connection with me. But sometimes I feel it’s a waste of time. My life would be the same even without knowing the reason, and might even be better if I used that time doing something productive. This realization didn’t come to me suddenly; let me stitch together some memories and thoughts to give it meaning!

It was our graduation farewell day. Officially and unofficially, it was the last time we’d see each other as college students. We had an extensive photo session. I’m not usually thrilled about taking 50 photos with the same group of people in the same place and outfit. What I really wanted was one picture with everyone I considered my friend—close friends, project partners, lab partners, etc.

I eagerly anticipated the photo with my lab partner JK (Background: JK had been my lab partner since first semester. Although we rarely interacted outside of labs and midterms, I knew he was a nice guy. He had a girlfriend from freshman year who was also in my class. She didn’t like me being around JK, according to what I heard from various sources. As we weren’t close enough for her to be concerned, I ignored these comments).

I didn’t have any photos with JK, so on the last day I wanted to make sure not to miss this chance. So when he was about to leave, I walked up to him and asked another friend (who has great photography skills) to take our picture.

That friend took a while to set the focus and JK’s girlfriend got irritated and said “Ah! What’s she doing here!” rolling her eyes. That was the first—and most likely the last time I saw her hatred towards me. I wasn’t bothered much; we talked a little, then went our own ways. We got jobs in different cities, but JK’s over-attached girlfriend ended up in the same location as mine. Eventually, JK moved to my city too. Until then, I had been all alone there with hardly any acquaintances. When I heard about JK’s transfer, I was ecstatic!

I’m always excited to be around nice people and in an unknown city when JK arrived like a ray of hope! At the time, I had many thoughts. I hoped we’d hang out sometimes. Not to worry, my intention was never to threaten his girlfriend’s peace of mind. My assumption about destiny was wrong. JK stayed in my neighborhood for about a year but we never met. He often asked me over text to make plans to meet, but it never happened. I was stupid for over-analyzing the simple incident of JK’s transfer and having expectations!

Many people have crossed my path, but that doesn’t mean I had the same interaction with them as before. Destiny has limited pages for every story and perhaps some blank ones to keep our hopes alive.

[Edit in 2025: JK’s overprotective girlfriend from college got married a couple of years back to another guy. Surprisingly enough I still have her number even though we never talk. JK dated another girl from school and got married last year. Needless to say, I wasn’t invited to any of these weddings as I am not part of their social circles. Sometimes we make friends with very little effort and other times we can’t keep friends even with the best of our efforts. I am not salty about being friends with JK, for a change, it doesn’t matter to me anymore. 🙂]

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