Fate? Or a lucky roll?

You know that feeling when you think you lost something really important, or really expensive, and then you find it? Its that overwhelming feeling of relief and happiness, knowing that whatever you found is safe, and you don't have to explain to someone that you lost it or buy a new one, or find something to replace it. I think that is one of the best feelings (no, not the best, but its up there)...

Anyway, I got that feeling yesterday, when I read an email. The email was notifying me that I was being offered a position as a clinical interviewer at a research lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I will be trained to conduct structured interviews to assess for anxiety and mood disorders for a prospective risk factor study. The reason this is such a relief is because I didn't match with a practicum site and therefore didn't have anywhere to conduct clinical work next year. If I hadn't gotten this position, (which is not a typical practicum site, but can count for the experience) I would have had to contact practicum sites that I didn't originally apply to because they weren't very relevant to my interests and hope that one of them would take me. This was something I was not excited about doing, and now I don't have to!

Things like this make me wonder, does everything happen for a reason? In high school I used to think that way. More recently though, I think that maybe people are just good at adapting to situations and bringing out the positive by coping effectively. However, when things like this happen, and things work out so well in the end, it brings me back to this question of fate. I mean, really, I may have ended up with the best of both worlds: a great practicum experience, and a less stressful schedule. So, is this fate at work? Or simply a convenient coincidence?

I am pretty sure I wont figure this out tonight, but its still an interesting question. Either way, flooding amounts of relief and happiness are upon me, and I'm grateful to have one less thing to worry about...