Crossed paths and missed connections …
posted April 20th, 2010 by EverywhereistA friend of my cousin’s once told me a story about something that happened to him while traveling. He had grown up in Switzerland when he was very young, moving to Italy when he was about 7 or 8. Later, he moved to the U.S., and he currently lives in Florida. Several years ago, he was traveling back to visit some family in Italy, and went through Newark, which is no doubt one of the larger and uglier airports in the U.S. And one that sees a lot of passengers.
While rushing to his gate, he ran smack dab into another traveller. While they stood, sorting things out, they realized that they knew eachother. They had gone to school together.
In Switzerland.
I suppose that sort of thing happens a lot, but it always makes my head spin. That you could bump into someone you know, far from home. I wish I could see all the decisions and occurences that lead up to two people arriving at the same place at the same time. Or see all the near-misses – the times we very nearly see someone, but don’t. It plays out like a movie in my head. I take a second too long picking out a shirt to wear, and enter the grocery store through one door, barely missing a friend who leaves out another one.
While at home, I suppose it’s not that big a deal. I swear I can’t swing a dead cat in the city of Seattle without bumping into someone I know. I’ll spare you the story of the time I called my doctor’s office, and described my symptoms to the receptionist, only to find it was my junior prom date. And, shall we say it was not the sort of illness you’d want someone to know about? Let’s just leave it at that.
But bumping into someone away from home seems far more special. I’m not a big believe in fate or anything of the sort – I figure that usually we see people we know on account of coincidence and a deal at Alaska Air. But that doesn’t make it any less wonderful in my mind. I still go absolutely bats when I unexpectedly see a friend. And yet it so rarely happens. Even given how much Rand and I fly, it’s a rarity.
And so, you can understand my absolutely freak out when Rand and I sat down on our flight to Newark a few weeks ago, and saw our friend Joel walk on board.
Absolutely freak out.
Joel and I used to work with eachother at Cranium. We sat at the same “pod” of desks when I first arrived, and I made tormenting him a pastime. He was one of the former-Craniacs who made the crazy drive down to Ashland for our wedding. And every few months he and a small group of my ex-co-workers get together for sushi and never fail to invite me, even though I can rarely make it. But they still invite me, anyway.
Joel, his adorable girlfriend, and his equally adorable cousin (seriously, these kids look like they’re genetically engineered in the back of an Urban Outfitters), were on their way to Hoboken to visit Joel’s brother, who just became a father, and to meet Joel’s new niece.
Rand and I were lucky enough to get upgraded to first class on our flight, which sadly meant that we sat no where near them. But just before take off, I got a text message from Joel that read, “Switch seats with me?”
And as silly as it sounds, knowing the three of them were several rows behind us (getting, as we would later find out, delightfully drunk) was really comforting. It was sort of like taking a field trip in elementary school. Even if you don’t get to sit next to all your friends on the bus, it’s nice to know they aren’t too far away.
It’s the sort of thing that makes you consider all the little decisions, all the things that had to happen for the five of you to bump into one another. It reminds you of how lucky you are to have such cool friends in your hometown in the first place.
And that you really should try to make it to the next sushi night.
We waited for them at the gate in Newark. This was their reaction. Adorable, right?
Tags: Air Travel, New York, Random Musings
April 20th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
You seem to only have beautiful charming friends. Like attracts like?
When I was studying in Madrid I went to a party for expat John Kerry supporters on Election Night and ran into a guy I knew from high school who had organized the event. Same night, two students in my program got into an argument about cow-tipping (…I don’t know either) and found out their cardiologist fathers were in the same residency program in the midwest. After they made some calls, they found out their parents were not only friends during that time, but there were baby photos of the two of them playing together as infants. The families lost touch after the residency was over. Weird, no?
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Wicked post. I never thought about the near misses, that got me thinking! I live in Halifax and I have visited Toronto (which is just a 2 hour flight away) quite a few times and with out fail every time I go there I bump into someone on the street that I know from home.
In February I flew from Toronto to Vancouver and after I boarded the flight I saw a guy walking down the aisle that I went to high school with in Halifax.
However my biggest unexpected sighting of a person was in Spain last August when I bumped into Nomadic Matt. At the time I was kind of new to twitter and we had exchanged a few tweets back and forth. I knew he was going to Spain for La Tomatina like I was but we made no plans to meet up or anything. La Tomatina is the biggest food fight in the world with 40,000 tourists flocking to Spain for this one event. My first night in Spain I was partying at my hostel and I turned around and saw a familiar face to which I said “Matt???” and he said “Cailin O’Neil!!” it was so weird to be so far from home and have that happen and also happen with a person you don’t actually know… haha
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Everywhereist Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Deanna – that is so beyond weird. I love that they were able to reconnect in their post-potty-training days. (Oh, and re: my slovenly self and my adorable friends, it’s more like opposites attract. Hee.)
Cailin – I love it! I can’t believe you were actually able to recognize him after only knowing him in the Twitterverse! Good thing you recognized him before, say, pelting him with a tomato. That could have made for an awkward conversation later.
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Beyond my normal “omg! small world!” moments like last Sunday when I met someone next to us at brunch while traveling here in IRELAND that directly knows a friend of mine moving to Russia…yes this happens to me.
When I was about 4 or 5 my Dad was a church leader for our area in Louisiana and frequently new people in town would look him up for help or direction in practical matters. So this is how a Japanese family ended up moving into our house for a short period of time. Only the father spoke English. It was a wild experience. And funny. The family ended up living in Louisiana (at their own place) for another year, but the Dads were lifelong friends. The oldest son in the family came to visit once more while we were in high school since he studied English but after, we lost touch completely. Then almost 5 years later, we ran into each other on a random afternoon in Salt Lake City after I’d left work late.
Now when I tried to track him down while in Osaka 4 years ago, it was a total miss thanks to an outdated phone number. It’s not always magical.
But as someone who doesn’t really believe in fate or any higher plan (uh, I think), my life sure is WEIRD for all the coincidences and crossed paths.
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
P.S. I have at least a half a dozen more stories like that, but I’m feeling long-winded so I cut myself off.
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Forum. Actually, it was at the Forum. You know the one, it’s in Rome. I ran into a college classmate there. It was summer, and neither of us had a particularly good or obvious reason to be in Rome, at the Forum. We just were. I only noticed her in the crowd of tourists because she was wearing a t-shirt with the name of the college on it in big block letters. (A surefire way a fellow alum will find you wherever you go.) Speaking of shirts, I’m glad you’ve decided to start wearing them to the grocery store again. We had to stop shopping at Whole Foods during that awkward phase.
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April 21st, 2010 at 11:40 am
Oooh such a great post. You’ve inspired me to do one too, hahahaha.
My first year of university, I was hanging out in the lounge meeting all the girls on my floor. I was chatting with one girl and she said her name. I realized she looked familiar. I said, “Is your last name Fitzpatrick?” She said yes. I said, “Did you have a pen-pal when you were six years old named Candice Walsh?” She said yes. The girls sitting around us kinda sat back stunned. Too funny!
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April 21st, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Great post! I love coincidences like this – and I love the comments from everyone with their own experiences – very cool!
What’s odd is that it doesn’t happen more often – when you consider all the people we come to know throughout our lives – from kindergarten through high school, college, various jobs, etc. – at some point we’re likely to cross paths again with someone, and yet it’s still so random and miraculous when it happens.
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Everywhereist Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
And, immediately after posting this, I went to the store and bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years. What’s weirder, is that I saw him AGAIN today. Not once for 10 years, then twice in two days.
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April 22nd, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Probably the weirdest random crossed path story that I know about actually belongs to my dad. We were at Disney World in line for a ride several states and time zones from our home and the person in front of us had worked with my dad several years prior. The world really is small.
Side note: You worked at Cranium?! That sounds like it would be a great place to work.
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April 22nd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Joanna – If we are speaking solely in past tense, then yes. Yes, Cranium certainly WAS a good place to work.
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November 27th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
I was in my sophomore year of college walking towards the student union at my university when I turn to my right and see walking on the opposite side ( but walking to my same destination) an oldhigh school crush!! Haha it had been 4 years then and we literally crossed paths..
One thing I do find odd is that sometimes the frequency of such *crossings* is related to how close I am to the person, or if there is a mutual closeness you can say. In that incident I wasn’t thinking of him at all, nor had I been thinking of him for years…
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