Do you believe "fate" plays a role in your life?

I consider myself an evidence-based kind of person. Yet, I can’t escape the idea that certain choices I made were somehow “fateful”. I can think of many examples in my life where trivial events were life-altering.

For example, out of college I was interviewing for post-graduate schools, and was tired of the process. I got a late interview to a school in New York City, and was going to reject the interview (I had already interviewed at 12 other places), but my brother convinced me to go (just for fun…its NYC after all). The day before the interview, there was a blizzard, and we almost didn’t make it to the train (I wouldn’t have been sad). Eventually, I went. I liked the place, but not better than another program in St. Louis. I had already decided on St. Louis, when, the day before my “final decision”, I reversed course and decided on NYC.

In NYC, I met my scientific mentor (another crazy story), my wife (yet another crazy story), and so on. Tiny little events in the process led to wholesale events in my life.

Sorry for the long-winded description, but I wanted to describe my view of “fate”. Thoughts?