Are strangers really strangers?

Earlier, I randomly found myself thinking about the way everyone is connected. A person you bump into on the street could someday end up being your boss, your friend, or even your spouse. My orientation leader my freshman year of college seemed nice enough, although I barely spoke to her. I remember thinking how she looked like a girl from my hometown. She gave everyone in our group her phone number; her name was Casey. Well, at the end of the school year I went through the contacts of my phone and for a good week went around asking all my friends "who the hell is Casey?" Not too long after that, my guy "friend" (we really pushed the boundaries of friendship...) started dating someone and didn't tell me. His new girlfriend was Casey, my orientation leader who's number was in my phone. When I met her, I never would have thought we'd end up connected in anyway except to say "hey, she was my orientation leader."

My other random connection was my senior year of high school. This girl I never really talked to, I ended up sitting alone with one day at lunch and she told me all about how she'd cheated on her boyfriend, how he had broken up with her, and how much she wanted him back. Months later a friend of mine at the time brought a couple guys she knew to dinner with us. One kept talking about his crazy ex-girlfriend, who I later figured out was the girl who had vented to me in the cafeteria, and he was the guy she had cheated on. I ended up becoming really good friends with him, such good friends that my other friends became jealous and turned their backs on me. If someone had told me early in the school year that in six months the girl in the cafeterias ex-boyfriend would become someone I loved and lost three of my friends over, I probably would have laughed at first. Then nodded and said " yeah, that sounds like me."

I really think everything happens for a reason though. if Casey hadn't dated my friend I would have kept holding on to a really unhealthy relationship. Same goes for the second situation. If that guy hadn't come into my life, I wouldn't have been able to leave home as easily. I would have felt tied to three people who weren't ready to grow up.

Think about the things that have happened in your life, and how they've changed you, what good they've brought, and where you'd be if they hadn't happened.

I'm going to see The Time Travelers Wife this afternoon, and hopefully I'll have a good review for it.

Till next time,

-NC