What are the chances...

I’m intrigued and attracted by things having to do with “fate.” Serendipitous occurrences, extrasensory perception, fated connections, and the like, all give me a good feeling, like there is some underlying intention to everyday life. If you’re lucky I may have even shared my belief in my own in-tuneness with these phenomena at some point or another ;)

So I have to share this story…

After finishing up our softball game, I was standing around chatting with the team, discussing our beach plans when a girl from the other team approached. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t recognize her, or rather that I wasn’t prepared to recognize her so it simply didn’t occur to me to pay attention. And so, I was left bewildered, frantically trying to place her when she unexpectedly asked, “This is really weird, I know, so don’t be freaked out, but did you live with (so-and-so) in DC last summer?”

“Yea…I did…” I responded, my tone surely reflecting the mix of doubtfulness and apologetic shame for drawing a blank that I felt.

She started to explain…When it finally registered, the pure unlikelihood of the situation gave me an instant surge of (perhaps disproportional?) excitement. I did know her, but just barely, for she had been a weekend visitor of our sub-letter.

That we happened to be playing in the same softball game is astonishing, but what is even more incredible to me, given the increasingly “virtual” nature of social contact (e-mail, text-message, BBM, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), is that she approached me at all. Though we had probably only exchanged a few words during her time in DC, most likely just our names, and “nice to meet you’s,” she introduced herself, despite the undeniable likelihood that she was mistaken, or worse, that I would be “weirded out.” The spontaneity of meeting her is even more wonderful if you consider that it means she actually cared enough to introduce herself to, essentially, a stranger.

If that wasn’t enough to make me want to be friends with this girl, she has since offered some helpful job hunt advice, and suggested we get together for dinner/drinks. Fate.