I am constantly questioning whether my life is the product of fate or if I am completely in control of my so-called destiny.

As graduation looms over my head, I find myself contemplating the choices I have made throughout the course of my college career that have landed me right where I am now.

I wonder if it was just my choices that have determined each path I take, and the cookie crumbles where it may, but I think the universe is not as random as people think it may be.

Were the people in my life always supposed to be in it, or is it just chance that I bumped into them and if I had not, would someone else be in their place?

Was I pre-destined to go to Eastern instead of the University of Iowa, or was it always ultimately my choice that brought me to Charleston?

Then there is the life perspective of the cynics, realists and nihilists who often think life has no real meaning and there is no room in life for fate or other whimsical ideas.

Life is what you choose it to be and the cookie only crumbled that way because you chose to crush it in your hand.

Maybe they are right. My choices may be the only reason I am where I am, and I have nothing else to attribute it to.

The questions and possibilities are endless and I could waste entire days wondering. It such a silly concept to worry about, but I discovered that I find great comfort believing that things happen for a reason; that there is no place I can be that is not where I am meant to be.

I want to believe that the people in my life are meant to be there and that I was meant to meet them. I want to believe that I was meant to enroll at Eastern and that I was meant to pursue journalism.

But, as life would have it, there is always room for doubt and even though it is comforting to think that I have some sort of twisted destiny, I cannot help but think about how my life would be different had I made different choices.

Maybe it is not just one reason or the other. Maybe life is just a glorious conglomerate of my choices and the hands of fate. I may never know the answers to these questions, but maybe not knowing is what makes life interesting and worth living.

Angelica Cataldo is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or amcataldo@eiu.edu.