Is our destiny written in stone?

Is our destiny written in stone? Are we the carvers of our own future? Is there a mystic force at play that has already written what our lives will be like?

These questions always come to my mind just before I go to sleep, or when I am coming back home from work.

Personally, I truly think I have wasted a lot of time in my lifetime; just finished my career one year ago (at age 26), now looking to study a masters degree but working in the meantime. But what if all of this was already meant to happen, and I couldn't have done anything to change it? Surely, at least that's what we can think to feel better about ourselves and our mistakes.

But how would you know?

How would you know if you changed your "meant to be" destiny, or if you just inevitably fell into it?

We can think of a simple example: imagine a person, whose father was a doctor, his grandfather was a doctor, and most of his heritage comes from that background, like a family tradition. Obviously, the parents of this person will want them to be a doctor as well; they will mold them and educate them so they fill that role. If they can break this tradition, we could say he broke with what the family had written for him. But... was his destiny meant to be a doctor? Or was his destiny meant to not be a doctor?

Also, there are some events that are out of our control. If someone has an accident, maybe that was meant to happen since the beginning; after all, it is something no one has control over.

There's something for me out there!

When things aren't going as planned, we sometimes tell ourselves that all of this has a reason, there's a greater good ahead, and we just have to keep moving. So we are actually believing in destiny here: we are being tested by it, and if we pass the test, we will be rewarded. This is fate at play, but it would always seems like we are the ones that make our destiny become true.

Do you believe in destiny?

What about you? Do you think life (or maybe even "God") has something already planned for you? Do you think you were destined to be where you are right now? Do you think you can truly forge your future, or all our actions lead to an already predefined fate?