"Everything happens for a reason" implies that Someone Else is governing all that happens in your life.

However, choice is inescapable. It takes a choice to look at something as happening for a reason. Actually, it's not that Someone Else is making things happen. It's that you're choosing to either turn negative/neutral events into positive opportunities, or you're just drifting through life without any perspective at all. A perspective of any kind implies a choice. It takes a choice to think.