Arbitrary?

You go to an audition--well, in this case, you take your child to an audition. There is preparation, both before the day and in the hours leading up to your--well, your child's--turn. And then the waiting is over and the event is over, and unless your child is one of a lucky few, the chance is over as well. And sometimes, it all feels a bit arbitrary.
 
So people ask you why you put yourself--or your child--in this position, why you engage in a process that sometimes seems so arbitrary. And you realize that it is, in many ways, no more arbitrary than most of the rest of life. We get jobs, or lose them, sometimes due to circumstances beyond our control. We handle health challenges we didn't prepare for. We manage daily upsets and roadblocks that have no rhyme or reason. And no one asks us why we engage in the process of life, sometimes as arbitrary, or more so, a process as that of auditions.
 
There's no denying that auditioning (or interviewing, or any act of putting ourselves out there to be judged) is arbitrary. But if we can handle a little arbitrary there, perhaps we will be in a better position to handle the inevitable arbitrariness of life.