Life Doesn’t Always Have A Reason

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The world is full of things we cannot explain; I think that’s what makes it so fascinating though. We are thrown a series of events that make or break us and there is really nothing we can do about it. As humans we get so focused on trying to explain things, make sense of why things are the way they are that we lose our sense of living. We’re terrified of the unknown, so we create things to help us deal with what we do not want to face alone. The day I really started living, was the day life got easier. I believe in science, in coincidences’, in the idea that we are simply just inhabitants of this earth. Fear is what drives people to religion, its what drives people to say things like “ Everything happens for a reason”. Why does their have to be a reason? Why can’t life just be?

For years, I was stuck in mainstream society with the idea that all the struggles I encountered had happened to me for a reason. When I started to think about it more I realized that bad things happen to good people, and more times than not great things happen to bad people and that didn’t seem fair. So what does that say about the idea that everything happens for a reason? It tells me it doesn’t. I don’t see karma, I don’t see a reason, I see life. I see a series of coincidences that happen because I decided to go to the store 15 minutes earlier than normal, because I decided I wanted to take the long way home. I try not to get stuck on the idea that what happens is set in stone because how can it be when if you had done one thing differently today, your entire life would be altered.

I believe in science, in doing things because you want to, in believing in things because it brings you happiness not because you are scared. I think that’s why organized religion has been such a turnoff for me. You drive around and see signs asking you if you are going to heaven if you die today, I don’t understand the appeal anymore. Maybe it’s because I have come to terms with the idea that the only thing I am promised is right now. I don’t want to live in fear. I want to live my life and experience this world; climb the highest mountains, learn a new language, travel, make the most of what I am promised now, not focus on what happens to me when my heart stops beating. No one really knows. We make guesses, we try and cope with love ones dying, and we try to give ourselves the piece of mind that this isn’t it. But what If it is? What is this is all were given? And you wasted it being scared that you weren’t doing what you were suppose to be in order to get into heaven?

To me none of it really matters. I believe in science, in coincidences, I believe that laughter is the best medicine and that we can’t explain the things that happen to us and that’s okay. That there will be shitty things we encounter in life, and there will be moments full of so much joy, but at the end of the day its just a series of unforeseen events that unfolded the way they did and created the life I am living. I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I’m sure it will be a series of events that coincidently shape me into the person I am. There is no plan for me, there are no promises, there is now, there is living. I alone write my story and I have the power to change it. You see I stopped being afraid of dying, of what will happen after I take my last breath, because the reality of it is… I will never know.

What people ask me most is “ What if you’re wrong?” and all I can really say is “Then I’m wrong”. I can sleep at night with that though, because I know that I am a good person, and I want to make this world a better place. So If some powerful being wants to send me to eternal damnation because I used what he supposedly gave me to disprove him; then there are probably some pretty awesome people who will be burning with me. Why should getting into heaven be about if you believe that a man died for our sins? Shouldn’t getting into heaven be about the choices you made? Shouldn’t an afterlife of paradise be based around how you lived your life? Shouldn’t it be about the people you helped? The changes for the better you made? I want to focus on leaving my mark on the world. I want to leave this place better than when I came into it. I don’t have to have religion to be a moral person. I have learned that I don’t need reassurance or faith; I have science. I have facts to look to; I have the obligation to be a good person because I want to be not because someone told me I had to. I started doing things for me. I wasn’t doing things to get a good record so one day maybe I could get into heaven. I do things because I like seeing other people happy, I do things because I want the world the be a better place, I do things because I want to help, I don’t do them so I can rack up a list of all the nice things I have done in my life. I do them because I want to do great things, because I am the writer of my own story. I do them because I am promised today and all the bumps along the road coincidently just shape me into the person I am. So what If I’m wrong? But what if I’m right?