Nothing is "meant to be"

Nothing in life is "meant to be." If anything was "meant to be" then our choices in life would not matter at all, being that everything would have to be predetermined. There is no force that magically controls our life and our actions. If there was such a force that in some way controlled the lives of every person on this earth making everything happen in such a way that was "meant to be" then why would bad things happen at all? You might say that bad things happen as a way for us to learn from them and make better choices, but if there is such a thing as destiny then our choices are already being controlled for us then there is no point in teaching us to make better choices, because we're not making our own choices.
Now, if we're not making our own choices and life is completely predetermined from when we're born to when we die and we have no say in the matter, then we would just be robots, completely empty and without emotion or feeling. Because without choices we are nothing more than a movie from beginning to end, and no matter how many times you watch that movie the same things will always happen.