In sixth grade, my English class just had to read Romeo and Juliette. Then for extra credit Miss Summers made us act out all the parts. Jason Ramirez was cast as Romeo, and as fate would have it I was Juliet. All the other girls were jealous, but I saw it differently. I told Miss Summers, that Juliette was an idiot. I mean she falls for the one guy she knows she can't have and then blames everything on fate.

Miss summers said that when fate comes into play, sometimes our rationality goes right out the widow. At the age of ten I was very clear, love like life, is all about choices; fate has nothing to do with it.

Everyone thinks it's just so dreamy and romantic. Romeo and Juliette, true love, how sad. If Juliette was stupid enough to fall for the enemy, drink the bottle of the poison and go to sleep in a mausoleum, she deserved everything she got.

And really, Romeo, Romeo where for art though Romeo, I mean just how much more desperate can you get.

Maybe Romeo and Juliette were fated to be together, for a while, and then their time passed. I told Miss Summers that when I was all grown up, I would take fate into my own hands, that I wouldn't ever let any man drag me down. Even now I still believe it, love is about choices. It's about putting down the poison and the dagger, and making your own happy ending, most of the time.

Then there's sometimes, despite all your best choices and all your best intentions, fate wins anyway.