Looking around at the earth's processes, I'm reminded of how lucky we are to have beautiful things in the world. Way beneath the earth's surface, when carbon has been placed under enough pressure, diamonds are formed. It takes millions of years for this process to occur. When a parasite drills into a mollusks' shell, that mollusk performs a set of defensive actions that result in the formation of a pearl. Okay, maybe love happens easier than diamonds or pearls happen. Or does it? Like other beautiful things in nature, a lot of things have to happen for anything to culminate. One of the main governing forces over these kinds of processes is good old-fashioned luck. Here are four elements of falling in love that require a little bit of luck to ensure success, in my opinion: Timing When two people meet and start hanging out, a key to taking the next step in a relationship is where people are in their lives. Are they both in a position to be able to be close to someone? Perhaps one of the two is working on their career too much, or maybe someone has just been through a painful relationship not too long before, and can't commit. When it all works out, people come into one another's life at just the right time. And, luck has a lot to do with it because you really can't plan it — you can only hope that it happens just right. Circumstance Circumstance dictates the entire process of running into a person. Are you both living in the same town? What brought you there? Every meeting you have with every person in your life is determined by a combination of personal choices and events in your life. As Back to the Future taught us, even the most minute choice/action can change the future. If you want to go even further back, your existence is based on events and choices of ancestors before you stretching far back in time. So, not only are we all lucky to be on earth, but we are lucky that our significant other is on earth as well, and even luckier that circumstance brought us together. First Impression They say first impression is everything. This holds true in business and pleasure. We base so much on that first meeting with a person. There's a lot of luck involved. People like me are lucky when we can control what we say and not screw anything up right off the bat. OK, maybe there is some control over that, but what about subtle things? Perhaps when you approach someone in a bar, a particular song happens to be on, or the lighting and atmosphere are just right to give your meeting a little more impact. Making a memorable and emotional first impression is not easy; so a little luck always helps. Chemistry When my high school teacher told me that everything a human does is based on chemical reactions in the brain, I was floored. From then on I walked around wondering about the chemical reactions going on in my head that made me wave to a friend, or snap my fingers along with a song. Hell, how do the chemicals in my brain even make me like a song? With so much complex brain chemistry telling us what we like, what we do, who we are, and if we are happy or sad, we are lucky that people even exist that we can blend with. I am convinced that my brain chemistry is so scrambled that there are no possible compatible female minds. But I'll keep looking, and perhaps I will be lucky enough to meet someone who is not only compatible, but makes all my brain chemistry happy. Rich Santos finds charm in stupidity and campiness in movies, celebs and life. He currently resides in New York City where some day he hopes to fall in love. Until then, he is happy to share his failures and successes with the readers of Marie Claire.