(Submitted by reader Dave R)
I grew up and attended school in the Pacific Northwest. Immediately after graduating from college in 1977, I moved to Southern California to accept a job. I soon made some new friends, and one in particular that I began hanging out with on the weekends. This friend liked having a donut for breakfast in the morning, something I never did.
So several months after moving here, one Saturday morning found me in a donut shop with my friend. The guy behind the counter had been one of my classmates in college. OK, so far an interesting coincidence, but not THAT amazing that two guys that both grew up 1,500 miles away would run into each other like that, even if neither of us had said anything to the other about moving to Orange County, CA.
Another thing this friend got me to do was to start buying music tapes. I was always the frugal type, and just listened to whatever was on the radio while driving. So just a few months after the encounter above, I went to a Wherehouse Records in a different city with my new friend. Sure enough, there was my college classmate behind the counter again.
[EDITOR: Insert generic joke about the lack of job stability in college graduates here.]
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It was the same college friend at the donut shop and the music store, both times working behind the counter? That is weird!
I suppose that meeting “someone” from your past that shouldn’t be nearby is small odds. But meeting a “specific” person is there the odds get really really big. You met “someone” which seems strange until you think about it. With the thousands of people whom you have met in your life some are going to turn up somewhere again. In your case it was really interesting because the same “someone” turned up twice, both times working at the place.
I guess we just like to make connections as I now realize that I did just that by saying “both times working at the place”. Our brains want so badly to make connections that I might have connected that they were both at stores (if he wasn’t working) or that both times he or you or your friend were wearing the same shirt as last time, or the “friend” was with you both times. You see where I’m going?
This site is really interesting because if you think about it, these coincidences are happening all the time, because of our amazing memories and the fact we are continually connecting things and making patterns.
But maybe I’m wrong, Dave maybe you should lay off the donuts for awhile?