Destiny Saved Me

Destiny Saved Me

As I walked down the street, towards the bakery, I heard an explosion. Then I heard screaming, and sirens. I thought maybe I could help in a small way, so I started back to the noise. And I was horrified by what I saw! Not twenty feet from the bus station I was at this morning, there was the bus I was going to be on, to go to my mom’s house. Until free will and destiny stepped in, and told me to go to the bakery first. My mom loved their apple scones, so I thought I’ll go get her some, and take a later bus. Now the bus I was meant to be on was on its side, on fire, after hitting a truck. The rescue team was already there, so I chose to be out of their way. Destiny is a funny thing; it can take you away from what you think fate determines you to do.

My whole life has been like that. When I was six my mom sent me to summer camp for two weeks. I was miserable. I cried to my camp counselor that I wanted to go home. She said I would be alright, and basically ignored me. Then along came fate, and the next day my mom was there to pick me up, my grandma had fallen and broken her hip, and we had to go and tend to her. A couple of days later, my mom was talking to another mother that had sent her son to camp, and the camp closed down because the staff and children had been stricken with norovirus. So, mom’s decision involving destiny saved me from that.

My mom believed in fate and predestination. She believed God had a plan for everyone, and I was okay with that, I just questioned it. For example, she thought God’s plan was for me to become a preacher, because her dad was a preacher, and her grandfather was a preacher. However, I did not feel led to be a preacher. I wanted to be an actor. She just shook her head, and said I was fighting fate. We disagreed almost daily on that subject.

To throw destiny in my favor I joined the acting club in high school. I loved it, I felt like these like-minded people were my clan. I was in four plays and my acting coach said I had great promise. After I graduated, I moved to New York to try out for Broadway. I actually landed a bit part in a major production, but I had caught the bug and was hungry for more.

I auditioned for numerous roles, and got in a few movies, and then I procured an agent. He was amazing, and we’re still good friends. He sent me on an audition for a major movie. I was nervous, and late, and the script they sent me for the role didn’t match with what they were doing at the moment. I asked the director if I got the wrong script for the role I was auditioning for, and he came over to me, gave me a new script for another character and said he had a feeling about me. I read the new part, and he gave it to me that day! Thank-you destiny! The movie ended up being a box office phenomenon, and I received my first award.

Now I was wanting to audition for roles that challenged me. I was normally a shy, introverted person, so I was thinking larger than life. Then a friend told me about a director I admired doing a movie about a superstar. He was definitely larger than life. I obsessed over this part, hiring dialect coaches, singing coaches, movement coaches, and reading and listening to everything I could find on this man. I was testing fate; in that I was acting as though I had already gotten the part. I took time off from auditioning just to try and get this part. It consumed my life. My mom said if I was destined to get it, then it would happen. I argued that maybe destiny needed help, after all, it had a lot to do.

My agent called me the next day, and told me to put a song on tape to send to the director, because it was a movie about a singer. Then panic mode took over, I had never sung professionally. I barely sang in front of people I loved. So, I sat down and played a song this musician had sang, and sang it the best I knew how. When I played it back, I heard karaoke. I struggled all day with this.

I went to sleep that night, and woke up in the middle of the night sweating profusely. I thought about any similarities we might have shared. Then I recalled that I read that he lost his dad when he was 25, the exact age I lost my dad. I went to the piano and sang a soulful, heartfelt song, for our dads. I looked rough, it was the middle of the night, and before I changed my mind I sent the video.

The next day, I got a call from the director. He said, “I don’t even know what that was. But it was the best audition I have ever received. This musician was legendary. Bigger than life. Are you ready for this undertaking?” I said “Sir, I have never been more ready for anything in my entire life.”

I still don’t know if it was destiny, or fate, but the next two years of my life were a whirlwind. People fell in love with this movie, and I think they fell in love with me a little bit too. I received numerous awards, and my agent was swamped with offers. My way of thinking is this; fate is what people believe your life was meant to be, and destiny is how you can change fate.