Coincidences?

I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason. I think all of the experiences I have encountered over my last 18 years of life have led me to this exact moment. I think everything we face has the ability to change us into better people.

And I love how there are days when everything just "clicks."

You can go through some uncertainty, doubt, hardship, sadness, whatever, and then a moment or a series of moments come along that make you realize exactly why you went through that uncertainty, doubt, hardship, sadness, etc.

I have found that days or moments pop up in my life where it seems the the event couldn't just be a coincidence. There are things that happen in my life where I am convinced more than ever that there is definitely a God who has a plan for my life.

And these awesome days where none of it seems like it could just be a coincidence?

I had one of them today.

Today was my first day of college orientation.

I was dreading it.

Waking up at 6:00? Stupid!

Playing icebreaker games with people I don't know? No way!

Stepping out of my comfort zone? Scary!

This morning all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and hope that I woke up a carefree 5 year old instead of an 18 year old starting college.

I was sad that high school was over, and I was resisting going on to college.

I'm a relatively quiet person and it can take me a little while to make friends. That's why going into a room full of complete strangers while we introduce ourselves and play silly games was the last thing I wanted to do.

But then one of those moments that's too crazy to be a coincidence happened, which kind of turned the day around and led to more "coincidences".........

Over the weekend I was at my friend Erin's graduation party. She's going to UC too next year, although she's dorming. She was telling me about how one of her roommates is in the DAAP program and is from Colorado. This girl was coming in for orientation this week and they were going to meet and get lunch somewhere.

Then today when we broke up into our small group sessions, there was a girl there who said she was in DAAP and was from Colorado. When I got the chance, I went up to her and asked her what dorm she was living in and whether she was rooming with Erin. And of course, she was!

Now, what are the odds of that? There are so many different orientation dates. I think they have about 4,000 incoming freshman, but only 300 go to each orientation. So the chances of her even being in the same orientation as me were slim. Then what are the odds that she just so happened to be in my small group?

She seemed nervous (rightly so - I was nervous and I didn't travel halfway across the country to get there), but she was so nice. I like to think that us being on the same orientation in the same group wasn't just a coincidence. I think that maybe God knew that I needed the opportunity to introduce myself to someone (that's not something I usually do on my own!) and that she needed a friend and some reassurance on what I'm sure was a very scary day for her.

The whole time I just couldn't believe how that had happened!

Then we played some random game with our small group that resulted in getting a partner. We had to talk with our partner and try to figure out something a little out of the ordinary that we have in common. I was talking to the girl I was partnered with, and we were having a hard time. She played sports, but I don't. I travel a lot, but she doesn't. She has siblings and I don't. We figured out that we both have dogs, but that's really not that uncommon. But then I mentioned how I like to bake, and she said that she does too! That sparked a whole conversation about how she likes to bake cupcakes and decorate them with fondant, so I told her about my wedding cake. It was just SO cool that I happened to get partnered up with someone that shares a big passion of mine. Who knows if we'll ever cross paths again since we have very different majors, but it was just another little reassurance to me :)

After our small group we went to our individual colleges for most of the afternoon. All of the people at orientation for the college of business today were KBS students, which is an Honors program within the college of business that I got into. I knew two girls going into it since they went to my high school, but not too many more.

I happened to sit by this super nice girl (again, I'm thinking not a coincidence!). We talked about how we both had similar Fossil purses (HAHAHA!). She's from out of town, so I gave her the lowdown on the great places to visit in Cincinnati.

Oh - and a funny story that would only happen to me. We were sitting there in the college of business and the dean of the business college and head of the KBS program was giving a nice introduction/speech. In the middle of it, my CHAIR BROKE, and I proceeded to almost fall on the floor. I let out a little scream that I couldn't help, which of course turned all eyes on me. I was a little embarrassed when asked if I was alright, and I had to admit that my chair had just broke. Why do these things always happen to me?!

Thankfully the nice girl next to me whispered to me that she thought it was funny, and we were able to laugh about it. :)

Then when it came time to do our schedules, I worked with two of the girls sitting by me (one being the girl next to me - I feel weird typing their names when I really hardly know them myself!), and we were able to get almost the exact same schedules. I will most likely have the exact same schedule as the one girl depending on AP scores. These girls were super nice, and I will be glad to have familiar faces in all of my classes on the first day of school.

The whole day was filled with so many different things that seemed to be exactly what I needed in that moment that I can't help but believe that they weren't just coincidences.

I feel much more excited for college now. Heck, I feel like I already made a few new friends.

I also feel such an overwhelming sense of peace that this is exactly where I need to be, and I couldn't be more grateful for that.

Life can be so crazy and weird, but it is SO, SO good.