Serendipity

I often wonder about the ways in which people find themselves connected. I've had a few of those "small world" experiences myself in the past few years and am always amazed at how God manages to bring the right person into one's life at the precise moment he or she is needed.

My favorite recent example is a person who became one of my closest friends within a few days of our meeting. I had just promoted to my current position back in 2008 and was preparing for my first day of training. I am not a training kind of person. Especially in our department, training tends to be long and tedious, not to mention full of people who cannot seem to grasp the simplest concepts. Those of you who know me may or may not be surprised to learn that I'm somewhat antisocial. Work settings more than social turn me into somewhat of a curmudgeon.

That day found me nervous about starting a new position and frustrated at the change in my work schedule. Out of habit more than anything, I chose a seat towards the back of the room, leaving a wide berth between myself and the two people already seated in the front row. Shortly before 8:00 AM, I noticed a pretty redhead walk through the door. After a cursory glance around the room (which, at this point, was still mostly empty), she deliberately walked over and sat in the seat next to mine. I will be the first to tell you that I was very irritated at this turn of events. Her husband would tell me later that she came home that evening and told him that she sat next to "a scary girl with lots of tattoos and piercings." She told me later that she wasn't sure at the time what made her sit next to me (as it turns out, she's also the type to sit away from others in a room). Now, we both agree that God was definitely at work.

Over the course of the 8 week training class and the ensuing 4 month training unit, we became nearly inseperable. I jokingly described her to my other friends and family as "just like me, except skinny and redheaded." We both joked that since each of us only had half a brain, we had separate halves of the same brain.

While we were getting to know one another, we soon discovered just what a small world had kept us apart until that time. Just a year and a half before, I was working part time at Shoe Pavilion. I was hired shortly after the previous manager had quit and was told that the new manager was looking for someone she could promote to the assistant manager position. As it turns out, my friend's husband was the previous manager. I also met her briefly while she was pregnant with their second child when she came into the store one afternoon. She worked at My Gym during the time when I used to take Melanie to classes. She went to high school with several people with whom I'd grown up. Better still, we grew up less than 2 miles from one another.

Still, despite all of these things that could have connected us over the previous years, it was the Kern County Department of Human Services that brought us together. She has since moved on to bigger and better things, and we don't see each other nearly as often as we did when we worked together. Despite the fact that I rarely see her these days, she is still one of the first people I turn to when I need advice or encouragement. She is the one person I know who can not only listen to my craziness without prejudice, but who can also understand exactly what I mean and how my brain operates.

In a somewhat different turn of events, I met The Boy through a couple of mutual friends. My oldest friend (I actually cannot remember a time when I was not friends with her) was bartending at a restaurant right around the corner from my new apartment. The Boy's best friend was a regular patron. Since I soon became a regular patron myself, he and I ended up as friends by default. Most people know that I don't actually remember meeting The Boy for the first time. That first meeting took place about six months before our second, much more memorable, meeting. Once we started dating, I found out all kinds of interesting things. One of my favorite connections is the fact that one of his brother's high school buddies dated my aunt while they were in high school (for those of you who didn't know, The Boy is almost 10 years older than I).

I'm still not sure how others explain these serendipitous occurrences, but I know that they're God's way of giving me what I need. I waited my whole life to find this particular breed of friend, and I value her friendship all the more because of the wait. I can't even begin to explain how perfect The Boy has been for me. I'm not, by any means, saying that we have the perfect relationship (for starters, we're both as stubborn as mules and far too used to being single), but he brought things to my life that I never knew I was missing. He was definitely worth the wait.