I know you’ve probably heard this saying a million times, and before clicking on this article you were probably thinking “OK, Kate, could you be more cliche?” but hear me out.

I used to be a disbeliever in this saying “everything happens for a reason.” To me, it was just a cliche phrase that overly obnoxious optimists used to justify something bad happening in their lives. But as I entered Penn State for the first time this fall, I realized a tiny truth.

You know how they say high school is supposed to be the best four years of your life? That was a total lie for me. Not only was it not the best four years, it might have been the worst. I went to an academically rigorous magnet school I had to test to get into, and I constantly felt like I didn’t belong. I was in an environment with things I didn’t understand and people I didn’t feel like I could relate to. And for a large part of my high school life, I was regretful for going to my school, constantly asking myself “what if” I had chosen not to apply. But the danger of “what if” is that when it’s used to talk about the past, we’re taking leaps back when we should be taking steps forward.

At the beginning of my college search, Penn State wasn’t even on my radar, and was in no stretch of imagination my “first choice” college. After being wait listed (twice!) by my dream school for as long as I could remember, I spent many nights crying and feeling the familiar question “what if” coming back to my mind. If I hadn’t gone to my school, maybe, I would have had a better GPA. Maybe, I would have continued doing sports and instruments. Maybe, I would have more friends. Maybe, I would be happy. Even after committing to Penn State and externally putting on an excited face, underneath it all I was still regretful and even a little embarrassed.

But now I'm a little more than one semester into college, and currently wearing a Penn State shirt and baseball cap as I’m typing this. The thing is, I truly couldn’t imagine myself beig happier anywhere else.

Without even consciously realizing it at first, Penn State changed me for the better. I can’t even pinpoint of an example of how or why, but I have never felt the sense of belonging I do here, and I constantly feel so lucky to have found a school which has made me a more open, extroverted, optimistic, happy person. Even at my most stressful times studying late nights at the Pattee Library, all I felt was blessed.

And here’s the thing… I wouldn’t have even considered Penn State if I hadn’t gone through my high school. I honestly probably would’ve gotten better grades, and I might’ve gone to my dream school, but I probably would’ve felt the way I did in high school at my dream school.

So that’s why I believe everything happens for a reason; because everything in your life had to work itself out in a certain way for you to get the place you are now. I’m not necessarily saying I believe in destiny, because I do believe we have control over our future, but sometimes the questionable patches in our lives have explanations after all and maybe all we can do is believe that everything will eventually work itself out.