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We have all heard the saying, “Be careful what you wish for!” We realize from this that we need to be grateful for what we do have, rather than wishing for different circumstances. Unfortunately, I have fallen into this trap on several occasions, but never more blatantly than a situation I have found myself in over the course of the past week. While I do not believe that wishing in itself is at all a causality, it does lend a sense of irony to such situations.

More than a year ago, I moved from the Midwest to California for a job. I was able to find good housing fairly soon after arriving, but I have slowly accumulated furniture and other household necessities as I have found items that I like for worthwhile deals. For some time, the last major piece of furniture that I had been looking for was a couch, which I had decided should be of the futon variety, especially since my family may be traveling out here to visit in the near future. I had previously sat on the floor in front of my television, not entirely uncomfortable, really, but definitely a detriment to inviting guests over. Thanks to a Christmas gift and wrapping up some other purchases, I decided in early January that I should begin looking in earnest for a couch.
I visited a couple of stores, ran a quick search online for options, but did not really begin searching in earnest due to work-related distractions. A few days before I was planning to search in earnest, I discovered a used futon that someone at work was advertising. The following Saturday I drove down to take a look, liked what I saw, and purchased a futon quite fitting for my needs. I hauled it home in my pickup truck, the perfect vehicle for hauling furniture in.
The following week, I was speaking with a co-worker about how I enjoy comparison shopping and having items to kind of just keep an eye out for, but now that I found a futon, I was out of things to shop for. Half jokingly, I mentioned that I would miss that, and needed something else to look for…
Fast forward a week or two at the most when I was driving back from San Jose to work some overtime. It was approaching dusk, and I was a couple of towns away from my destination when a car pulled out in front of me (they had a stop sign). I did not have enough space to stop, as I had noticed the car waiting at the stop sign moments before, but as I glanced around for additional traffic and glanced back they had pulled out into the middle of the intersection. I slammed on the brakes and slowed down a little, but in the end my truck was severely damaged and I may end up needing to search for a new vehicle.
Now that I may be faced with the necessity of searching for a new vehicle, the prospect of shopping for something seems much less attractive. At the same time, I am reminded of how thankful I am that I even had a vehicle in the first place. We all have troubling circumstances that we must get through in life, certain situations just appear to be more dramatic than others when in reality, they can end up being merely more ironic.