I'm Kate Boehler and this is Everything Happens.

I'm a historian, author, aggressively fast walker,

but lately in a world that promises endless progress,

even now in a pandemic, I've realized,

I just need to be a person.

It's hard to give up on the feeling

that the life you want is just out of reach

if only you tried.

Eat this food, find that relationship,

just get the kids graduated or the parents this kind of care.

Only then will I feel different, better, whole.

But that's not the way this works.

When I was 35, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer

and here's the very fun thing about that.

The world loves you better when you are shiny,

when you are cheerful,

when you still believe that your best life now

is right around the corner.

I've written multiple books on the history of the idea

that you can always fix your life,

so I'm going to be the one to say it.

There are some things we can change and some things we can't.

...