Definition: fate, chance, luck, external circumstances, outside influence, divine intervention, destiny

 

The centerpiece of my hometown of Port Providence, Pennsylvania was a rowdy bar called the Fitzwater Station.  My parents and the parents of my childhood friends could often be found there, and as kids we constantly had to navigate this place and its mostly negative impacts on my community.  I reflect on how lucky I am to have survived and escaped that neighborhood, and I ask if I’m doomed to repeat the mistakes of my kin.