Off! the Top of My Head

by Chad Armbruster

Well kids, after a one-month hiatus I return to you happier and healthier than in previous articles. Good things have been happening lately, and if you write then you know that it's always harder to write when the entire world is right, because logic dictates that drama begets fodder for writing. So, it's always harder to write something when you have nothing to complain about, but look at me being a trooper and delivering the goods anyway. It's a rough life, but hey, someone's got to do it. I'll bring you up to speed on my life thus far.

So, a few articles back I mentioned a woman that I was very interested in but as life would have it I was not her type of guy. (Her words not mine.) But through much communication and a little cosmetic adjusting on my part we've been together for a little over a month (sans goatee). So after many conversations we've found out that we know many of the same people, but we've just never met before. That brings me to the real topic of the article here and that is fate.

I've never been one to believe in something as trivial as fate. Now, I know that a lot of people live and die by the idea that someone somewhere out there has a plan for them and all they have to do is hold out until their number is called in the cosmic lotto. (Kind of makes wonder what you win if you get the cosmic Power Ball) But I've never been the type of person to believe that I'm not in control of my own life and yes, I'm very well aware of the key word "control" in this sentence. I am slowly coming to the realization that I am a control freak and that I've been fighting to control my world for a little longer than I'd care to remember. But that's for me and a shrink to talk about over a nice scone or two. Anyway, it's not that I've been fighting the whole fate thing, it's just something I've never really been into. But, now that I'm with my girlfriend, I realize that the series of events leading up to this moment were mostly under the control of fate.

So, tell me how freaky all of this is and to keep things straight: my girl's name is Mary (I know the jokes are endless). Anyway I knew my girlfriend's sister back when I lived in Cape. While I was working at Kent Library I was supervisor over one of her sister's friends. Now, some people would say "Hey yeah, it's a small world, ain't it?" but wait, there's more. Mary used to work at a restaurant with one of my very good friends in high school. Again, odd but not quite to the freaky stage yet. Mary's older brother married a girl I graduated high school with. (A little odder.) Mary used to work with my older sister at the same place I work now but in a different department. (Now I'm thinking funky, not freaky.) When I applied at my current job I had to fill out a schedule stating my desired working hours. Desperate for a job, I of course put "ANY" across the schedule in the hopes that they would sense my desperation and say, "Wow, this guy has no life. He's our kind of guy." So when I was hired I was told I would be working evenings and I was put in a training class for the night shift and whom should I see there for the first time, but Mary. So I try to pursue and I'm shot down like a Yeti walking down Broadway. But just by shaving my goatee, she begins to see me in a more interesting light, and here we are a month later, happier than I've been in years. Now to me that's quite a series of freaky events which leads one to believe that we may not have the control we think we have.

Think about it. If I hadn't lived the life I've lived up until this point I never would be where I am today. I know that's a little too Kung Fu for some of you (kind of like "wherever you go there you are," right?) Ok, let me relate this to the masses. Think of your life in the whole rather than the sum of its parts, did you ever believe that you'd be doing what you're doing? (Whether good or bad) Did you ever think that you would have met whom you've met? Did you ever think that your life would be where you are today without the influences (no matter how minute) of everything around you? Did you ever think of how you influence others in their lives? Did anyone out there keep reading this article long enough to read this sentence?

But, now you get the idea. Life's not always what you think it is at whatever moment you think of it. Your life is not always what YOU make of it. On many occasions you are forced to sit back and play co-pilot to an unseen entity that will more often than not keep you blind-folded for the ride (but if you're lucky, it'll keep you hand-cuffed to the bed on occasion as well.) So with this being the back to school issue of OFF!, I hope I've done a small part to remind each of you that while there are times of your life that you would care to forget and some of your life that you wish you could wrap yourself up in with a warm cup of cocoa, I ask you to look at your life and remember that without all the good, the bad and the ugly you wouldn't be who you are today, nor would you be where you are today. And I hope that for the lot of you it's a good place to be. I know mine is. So until next time when I'll be the one wearing the dress, not Darrel, I wish you all the best and some of the worst. Because yes kids, you really do have to eat all of your dinner before you can have dessert.