What is Fate? Fate is to accept death or to accept the fact that the self exists for no other reason than it ultimately ceases to be. Death gives us our reason to be. It defines our purpose. Yes, the argument could be made that death isn’t what makes us and that its power is beyond our control, but I ask you, why is it that we live? Is facing death truly so terrifying that, in the end, we do everything possible to prevent it, asking ourselves, “Did we matter?”

One could simply say that it was fated to be, that in the end, this was exactly what was intended for me. I ask, if believing that each and every single life was defined, and is a prerequisite created by a supreme power, are we as human beings truly living? Believe in any religion you’d like. This, having been laid out, no matter what I do, is all a part of fate. One may accept that people are as meaningless as death, and yet, the moment of becoming is a precious and beautiful thing, indeed.

Death’s beauty from acceptance is simple. Its stasis prevents change as a person. To die once prevents us from dying twice and, yet, once accepting it, you will never change. Death defines change and gives change real meaning. We quickly understand what we have and decide what we want. The existence of death forces us to try to be unique, to try to prove that we are different and that life is a gift only because of death’s existence. Death’s paradoxical complex solidifies our meaning–to live is to die.

That said, Fate’s existence is nothing more than a plague. It corrupts a person’s will and meaning. We all end up in the same situation, no matter what happens, even if we had an eternity, or if we had died. This is what living is. To be a person is to die. Taking risks, doing everything we can, and trying to define our existence is life, but it is death that solidifies our existence. This, ultimately, is why we have to find meaning, just that it’s a possibility or more specifically a gift from our finite world.