Destiny is a funny thing. I’m a big believer in it. I refuse to believe that the perfect alignment of coincidences is meaningless. It is intentional. Life intends for us to be in this moment because every moment before it has led us up to this exact point. Life has done this for a reason.

Nothing is meaningless.

The coincidences aligned once again in an obvious fashion this week. This coming Monday will be my birthday. This week is National Suicide Prevention Week. Last weekend a ghost materialized.

These are all connected, I promise. Allow me to explain.

I’m turning nineteen. Which is nothing special, I’m sure. I won’t gain any new allowances with the United States government. I’ll still be a teenager. No big deal. But then I flipped my thinking from what nineteen will bring to what nineteen has brought. Life has changed so much in nineteen years – especially in the area of my relationships. In a matter of just five years, my group of people has completely changed. I can count the number of friends from five years ago that I still have today on just one hand.

And for a while this made me very sad.

This weekend I met up with a friend who completely disappeared from my life almost a year ago. I thought she was gone forever. But she recently reappeared. We were able to meet up and address some very important life topics. It felt so strange at first…surreal. Of course, it could take some time and work to rebuild that friendship. But at the moment, I am just grateful. I got lucky. I am lucky that she reached out to me again.

The intersection of this reunion at a time where I was realizing drastic changes in my friendships was certainly no coincidence.

It taught me a very fundamental lesson. A fact of life.

People need people.

I spend far too much time telling myself that I don’t need people, that I can do it myself, and I spend far too little time telling myself that I do need people, that I can’t do it alone. Nowadays, I have a very difficult time letting myself get attached to people. I put up walls and set distant boundaries so that the pain hurts a little less if things go awry. But that is very costly.

It costs community and support, which are essentials to surviving.

The truth is that I need people. You need people, too. We need each other.

Life is not easy. It cannot be done alone. We need people to share our stories with, build us up, and remind us of our truth and worth.

Tying this together… This week is National Suicide Prevention Week. The Washburn University chapter of TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) will be tabling in the Memorial Union Monday – Friday from 11-1. It is a core belief of the organization that people need other people for the very reasons mentioned above. Stop by the table this week to make friends and learn about mental health.

Go to www.operation-adulthood-review.blogspot.com to read more from Katie’s blog.