Fate is a fickle thing. It can lead you down a path of pain, or it can take you on a journey toward happiness. There is no equity in the unpredictable. Not everyone is destined for a happy ending. Not every story will work out in the end. Not every love is meant to survive. Some see our choices as an exercise of free will. They believe that we control the outcome of our lives, the people we decide to love, and the path we set to walk. But "free will" didn't crash my plane. It didn't leave me abandoned on an island with the man who once crushed my soul. It didn't reopen my heart to a love so powerful that the end of it would be unsurvivable. I didn’t choose to fall in love with my sister’s fiancé. Or feel insurmountable pain that followed my rescue. I didn't choose to let go of a man that would own my heart until the day I die. But I am no longer allowing fate to decide my future. This next path is mine.