But then...

The above scene from the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster, is my favorite of all time for what it symbolizes about Life.  No one truly prepares for all that (s)he encounters.  We prepare for a baseline in Life, but not for the individual encounters.

In the movie clip, Jodie Foster has prepared all of her life for what might come her way in the form of planetary science.  She even made the arrays ready to receive signals from other life in space.  She thought she was ready, but it proved to be a confluence of failures for her even though eventually she was very satisfied.  She prepared all of her life for the one moment she thought she was prepared to hear.  When it came, she swung into immediate action as she trained herself to do.  Then everything changed on her.  Numerous unexpected events tested her mettle in ways she had not prepared for even though the initial event happened according to her plan.

This clip captures the moments her entire life was centered around and prepared for.  It is the moment her life changes in very unexpected ways, none of them to her liking.  Eventually, all those changes worked out for her, but only after a whirlwind of unplanned situations.

I have supremely prepared for the encounters I wanted to happen in Life.  I've had more than a few of those eye-opening moments when I swung into action according to my plan.  But then...