I'm not really one for superstitions, but I've been experiencing something very strange lately. Somehow, each week one of my regular television shows devotes an element of that episode's story line to some situation that parallels something I'm experiencing in my own life. The first time it happened I thought nothing of it, but as a trend began building from week to week I began to get sort of caught up in the significance I was imagining in each episode. For the last month these parallelisms were comforting. Each one took a very unfavorable situation and showed how the character pulled through it. I would watch each show, identify with the characters frustrations or sadness, and invest a little piece of me in the outcome of his situation. When things worked out, it genuinely made me happy. Happy for the character and hopeful that the outcome of my situations would be the same.

Unfortunately, the chain of well favored parallelisms has ended. This week the situation didn't end so favorably. For the first time, things didn't end up too well for the character. In fact, he pretty much just got screwed. In any other show, with any other character, I would just feel bad for him. However, this isn't just any show and it isn't just any character. This is a show that has been consistently paralleling my life and been scarily accurate to what I've been going through.

How else am I supposed to take this, except as a bad omen? Especially when circumstances are presenting themselves in the same fashion as in the show. Even worse, the bad outcome is already starting to manifest itself. Though it's not yet as severe, it doesn't mean that it's not a precursor to what is to come. All I can do is hope that these occurrences are mere coincidences. Or hope that things start looking up for the characters that mysteriously seem to be foreshadowing my life.

posted by Christopher Schnese