Timings.

I’ve always believed my life’s so cautiously thought-out and planned, in terms of major events leading up to one another in total harmony. Solely connecting the dots used to baffle me, up until I realized how every minute of my February 16 was so carefully calculated for me to end up in that exact spot where the accident took place.

I was supposed to be out of town during that entire week for some client work, and yet our team decided last minute that we can work from the office instead. So I got to stay.

On that specific day, I was supposed to be visiting my friend’s mom who’d just gone through surgery, but she felt tired and cancelled last minute, too. We decided to postpone the visit to the next day, yet I already had plans then with another friend who had come from the UK to visit for only a week. I decided I’d better switch plans and catch up with her on that day instead, so I‘d get to visit my friend’s mom the next day.

She was hanging out then with a common friend of ours, and another friend of hers I didn’t know. So I decided to pass by for a while, and then all four of us together headed home. Exactly 7 minutes before we were supposed to drop off my friend’s friend at a place we normally wouldn’t have crossed if it weren’t for her, we stopped at the traffic light. And only a couple of seconds later, a speeding guy who didn’t realize the red lights were on, crashed right into a long line of cars, exactly where the four of us happened to be.

I could have been out of town.

I could have been at my friend’s place visiting her mom.

I could have been at home had my other friend been back at hers in the UK.

I could have headed home on my own and not been there while we dropped off my friend’s friend. A girl I had only met for the first time that day.

We could have arrived onto that street a few seconds earlier and moved ahead when the lights were still green.

This guy could have not received a call at that moment and instead been able to focus on the road.

So many things “could have” been. So many places I thought I was “supposed” to be in.

And yet, that’s where I was meant to be, exactly when I was meant to.