It’s been 9 years to the day since my family’s house burned to the ground while they were away. My dad called me at college to tell me what had happened. Over the next few weeks I decided to drop out, and by Christmas I had begun my career in IT at Micro Solutions back home.

I seldom think of the fire anymore except to note its anniversary. No one event has changed my life more suddenly and significantly; there was my life before the fire, and now there is my life after the fire. It took me off the path I was on, which felt like it was leading nowhere slow, and set in motion everything that has happened since: new friends, a means of living, a stint in a band, a spiritual search. I definitely wasn’t supposed to get that Electrical Engineering degree.

That fire was the worst thing that ever happened to me. And the best.