Improbable Life

      The presentation that Tyler gave in class today really got me thinking about how each decision effects your life so drastically. Sometimes its just a coincidence meeting people, and sometimes that coincidence can change your life. All of these small changes in life provoke larger changes that effect the course of our lives. Dr. Sexson said that life is improbable and that "all chances are against it". I could be so many other places right now, in the company of so many other people, yet here I am. Every choice i've made in life so far has led me here, and if I'd made even the slightest different choice in the past, everything could be different. That's such an interesting thought to me. How if I'd said hello to a different person or not gotten to know somebody, or made a different choice, how different would my life be? I guess it's true that the smallest choices add up to big changes.

     It was also interesting to me how Dr. Sexson spoke about how improbable it was that we are even alive and in this class. If my parents had made different choices and never met, I would not even exist. All chances were against me not existing, and yet here I am. This got me thinking about my life, and all the people who've come and gone and how my life has changed with each person i've known. There are millions of people out there who I don't know, but I'm sure i've had the chance to get to know alot of them and that chance just slipped away. John Steinbeck once said "I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen". This quote speaks to me so much because the important people I have in my life now, I met by chance. There are so many people who i've walked by, and just by saying hello or giving them a smile I could've gotten to know them better, but I didn't. And it was choices like these that make all the difference in my life.

    Dr. Sexson said that there are 4 things we need to learn, and those things are "memory, miracle, music, and myth." I thought about this and realized how perfect these 4 things fit in with my current relationship. About two years ago, my old boyfriend and I broke up. In the months that followed, I could only think about him and did everything in my power to forget him, but his memory kept haunting me. This is where the first M comes in. Then one day in August, after the sweet pea festival, my friends wanted me to go country dancing at the SOB barn. I wasn't going to go at first, but it was my friends birthday and so I was convinced to go. See, fate was already fighting against me. I got to the dance, and to be honest there were a bunch of strange people there. Then, the second M (Miracle) came into play. This handsome cowboy came up and asked me to dance. We danced and he was a bit drunk and one of the worst country dancers ever, but it was so much fun dancing with him. In my past relationships, music has been a huge point of conflict. See, I love country music and need to be with someone who also loves it. So as we were dancing, this boy starts singing along with the song, and then we begin to test each other on country song lyrics and turns out he knows just as much country as me. I'd never met someone like that. It seemed to be a miracle! So as we're dancing, we're both singing the song "Dust on the Bottle", and sadly the dance ends and we go our seperate ways. I walk over to my best friend, and she points to the boy and says,"Amber, I have a feeling thats your future boyfriend." A few songs go by, and suddenly "Dust on the bottle" comes on. This is where the third M (Music) comes into play. So this boy rushes over to me and asks me to dance again, and the rest is history. We've been together ever since. It seems like everything and all the powers of the world were working against us meeting that night. I almost didn't come to the barn, and he said he almost didn't come either, and that it was just by chance. I'd been dwelling over the memory of my past boyfriend and needed a new beginning, and I found it in a place I never expected. It was a miracle I met him that night. Our love of country music brought us together. All of these things combined are myth. Now everytime I hear "Dust on the Bottle", I think of our meeting. Myth is the precedent behind action, and I believe it played a part in bringing us together. If I hadn't of gone to the barn that night and made a different choice, my life would be on a completely different path right now. It really is true that life is so improbable.

    To end things, I have a quote that I love by William Shakespeare. It goes "When I saw you I fell in love. And you smiled because you knew". I don't know if I could fall in love with someone at first sight, but in all reality a look and a smile is all it takes to start to get to know someone. How many people could I have loved if I had just smiled at them and gotten to know them? I'll never know and I don't think it matters at this point. It was by fate that I met Aaron at the dance that night. All it took was his smile and him asking me to dance. At that moment I was skeptical of it becoming anything more than a dance, but maybe, just maybe, deep inside I smiled back because I knew I just might fall in love too.