Here We Go Again, It’s the Small World Syndrome

There’s absolutely nothing that can be done about it. We all fall victim to it sooner or later. One thing leads to another…that leads to another…and another…and so on…and on…and on.

You get where I’m going with this right?

We all have encountered situations that have made us think, “This couldn’t have been just a coincidence. There’s something more going on here.” Whether you believe in fate, destiny, free will, religion or absolutely nothing at all, at one point in your life (even for the slightest second) a thought like that has flown through your mind.

Cynics may say you can find a connection between anything, if you look hard enough.

Sure. Maybe.

But we all like playing our own version of ’6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon’ so loosen up.

And who doesn’t love The Bacon?

"Okay, I reminded them. Now please put the gun down."

Photo Source

When we last parted I disclosed the details of a social endeavor that I felt required a ‘warm-up’ that upcoming Friday at a happy hour gathering with some co-workers.

In my mind I had imagined the ideal situation: Walking into the restaurant my eyes canvas the room to catch a work buddy giving me one of the ‘this-is-our-table-so-come-on-over’ head nods. The place is loud and full with other patrons as I work my way across the floor to the bunch of tables pushed together. I sit, being introduced to others at the table (who don’t work with me). The ambient noise in the restaurant becomes a “wa wa” as I am graced with the face of a cute (single) female friend of a buddies wife. Extending my hand there is a temporary pause when our eyes lock. Shaking hands we try not to smile too big when saying “Hi”.

Not quite how the evening went. The truth? Everything up until the “wa wa” moment. Those last few sentences are purely from my Hollywood movie magic burdened imagination.

The group began breaking up around 8:15pm.

The Evening did not feel it was time for things to end just yet. It was just getting warmed up.

I decided to swing by Barnes and Noble to scan the book selection and see if there was anything I would maybe look up later to buy on Amazon. After skimming the spines within the Cultural Studies/Biography section I made my way towards the periodicals to see if they had the latest issue of Fangoria. As I reached an intersection of book shelves I caught, from the corner of my eye, someone else approaching from another direction so I stopped to let her pass. I looked up.

She looked up.

*beat*

You could tell both of us were flipping through our Name Rolodex at lightning speed.

“Matt?”

Sure enough it was an old friend of mine, from college, whom I had not seen since about 2000/2001. We hugged and went through the typical catch up phrases when long-lost friends meet up out of the blue. Then suddenly, “Holy sh*t Matt, I have so much to fill you in on. This is so strange. I think certain things happen for a reason. This is strange. Do you have time to talk? Come here.” *this is far from verbatim and went on for many many more sentences. I figured I’d give you the abridged part*

Before I knew it she had pulled me to the cafe in the store and was on the phone with a girlfriend of hers wanting to push back their plans by 30 minutes for that night. Her friend did not like this. I could hear the fury coming out of the speaker. I ended up with the phone pressed to my ear and calmly apologized, clarifying my intentions were not to steal away her friend and I would never want to be the person who caused a conflict between friends. She laughed. Trouble resolved. They came to an agreement to meet at 9:30.

Thus began a recap from a few of her most recent years entailing: marriage, divorce, cheating, parents and the present issue of juggling 3 men. All of this in the span of 30 minutes.

My head hurt. I think I got a flash of what Chuck Bartowski felt like after getting the Intersect.

But it was an enjoyable time none-the-less. We exchanged numbers and are getting together for coffee later this week to continue her tale.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. In an effort to get out more, and join the fellow human kind, I was up early and off to Panera Bread for a cobblestone pastry and a coffee. While enjoying my revived weekend morning tradition I spent time working on my laptop *mostly reading and commenting on some of my favorite blogs * Immersed in my work I heard a voice say, “Isn’t that Matt, one of the famous guys from a bachelor auction a couple of years ago?”

Turns out it was one of the women who works with The American Cancer Society/Cancer Action Network (the organization that was in charge of said auction). Again, the typical “catch up” conversation was done. We talked books, current events, writing and blogging and apparently my inevitable return to the auction block for this years 3rd annual bachelor auction.

In less than 12 hours I run into two people from my past. Weird huh?

Press that fast forward button one more time to this past Monday. After work I decided to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends, one of which was a bag of Starburst jellybeans. *but may as well be advertised as sugar-coated delicious crack*

Standing at the checkout I see a guy walk up to the Customer Service counter. Cue the inner monologue, “Is that…? It is.” I call out his name but draw a blank on his last name. With my bag of produce, bread and colorful chewy beans I stood patiently for this person, I believed to be a friend, to finish his transaction. As he turned and walked away from the counter began to ask him if he remembered me. Not only was I unable to finish my question but my last name sprung from his mouth in a surprised tone.

He remembered.

This guy was yet another long-lost college friend. Stranger still, he and I met the same way I met the girl at Barnes and Noble, doing a theatre production called ‘Juvie’ our first year of college.

For a third time the “catch up” conversation commenced. We discussed our travels since graduating, work, mutual friends we both are still in touch with and our current situations here in KC. We found out that we live in roughly the same area so plans were made to hang out sometime soon.

That is my syndrome: ‘The set of detectable characteristics when the reason that they occur together has not yet been discovered.’ Maybe I’m looking into things too much? I can’t help to ponder that something more than coincidence is behind my encounter with these three people from my past, at this exact moment in my life.

Ahhh, my Small World Syndrome…