The universe is somewhere else, and it did happen earlier. Nucleosynthesis happened earlier and in a different place, recombination and the emission of the CMBR also happened earlier and in a different place, as did the first gravitational collapse, reionization, the formation of the first stars and galaxies, eventually the formation of the Solar System (much too early), and then abiogenesis and all of evolution had no choice but to get going sooner than it really felt was appropriate. So here you are, and it turns out that you have no way of knowing that you’re actually early and in the wrong place.
Some of the multiverse hypotheses answer that. We’ve done many threads on them.
Short, glib version. Universes happen over and over and over. We notice this one because we’re a part of it. No larger meaning can be attached.
It was here a minute ago.
Did you lose it? I know I’m always misplacing the damn thing.
My favorite theory is that we are inside a black hole! And the black holes in our universe are other universes. Thus, we have actually seen big bangs in action…it’s black holes all the way down.
Have you looked under the cushions? That’s were I often find the remote. The universe might have slipped down there.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
– Max Ehrmann
I’ve heard reputable physicists talk about what’s “outside” the universe. Sure, concepts like “what, where and when” only make sense in our universe, and who knows what laws of physics would apply outside the universe, but it’s still possible to imagine our universe is expanding into something, along with a possible infinity of other universes.
WOW! I found a quarter the size of the Horsehead Nebula! I think that M&M might be sentient, though.
If we define the universe as,
that which is,
the problem goes away.
You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.
– National Lampoon
Today’s most fashionable cosmological theories have become so esoteric that one can by no means hope to use them to convert people to atheism. I wish Zeno of Elea were around.
In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. (Terry Pratchett)
*The universe is an island,
Surrounded by whatever it is
That surrounds universes. *
–Ashleigh Brilliant
How do you know? 
Because of the mess it made exploding.
“In the begining, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regard as a bad move.” - Douglas Adams
Seeing that there are so many whacky theories all with no basis in anything here is mine also based on nothing.
The universe is a sound. To the human ear it sounds like Om.
Om
…on the range, where the deer and the antelope play… 
“I forgot my mantra.” --Jeff Goldblum (in “Annie Hall”)
It’s everywhere you want to be, and everywhere else too. So it’s got Visa beat by quite a ways.