This refers to when two or more people encounter each other in completely coincidental fashion. You might notice your old classmate from three countries away is now your waiter in a place you had no reason to expect them in, and you might say "wow, what a small world". You might notice two people who you know from completely different spheres miraculously know each other. You might recognize by chance that your penpal has made a cameo at a venue you're at.
But what was your most profoundly coincidental encounter?
Bumped into my brother's ex GF on a Grand Canyon trail, when we both live in Europe.
Oh boy, I love telling this story.
So, back in 2013, I signed up for a now defunct local website, where I met this kid from Aragón. To respect his privacy, I'll call him S. There wasn't much going on at the time and eventually we grew apart.
Fast-forward to 2016, I move to Madrid to start college. In my first year class, there was this guy I'll refer to as L, a trans man from the Basque Country with really chaotic energy, who kept doing really cursed things for the sake of it. One morning he arrived at the class claiming that, the previous day, he cooked a few bean stew ice pops, and hid them across the campus. Obviously the people who found them weren't thrilled and, to no one's surprise, didn't eat them. So, at the end of the day, he picked up all of the bean stew ice pops, and shoved them off into the freezer at his rental flat.
Sadly, the next year, L moved to a different campus and to a different flat. Though he remained involved with a gamedev association at the same university.
Fast-forward to 2020, I'm almost done with my degree and the pandemic hits. My old friend S and I reconnect over Discord and tell each other about our lives, then share some funny memes. At some point we begin discussing cursed food, and S proceeds to tell me this: «I had a friend who went to Madrid for college, and when he first arrived at his rental flat, can you guess what he found in the freezer? bean stew ice popsicles».
What were the odds? How many flats in Madrid would have bean stew ice pops, of all things, in the freezer?
Bonus: S and I shared this story with a common friend, call her C. C stated that she wanted to greet L. After all, she was involved with the same gamedev association, and she did know of a trans guy from the Basque Country with that name and degree. But when C greeted him and told him about the ice pops, he had no idea what she was talking about.
It turned out to be a different trans guy from the Basque Country with the same name and degree that was also collaborating with the same association.
At that point I'd be tempted to celebrate the revelation/reunion by trying one of those bean stew ice pops.
(hey I've had weirder things before)
I have a few:
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back in University I overhear some classmates I was not very familiar with talking about a girl playing Street Fighter IV competitively. They say the nickname. She was a girl I was flirting online with. I never played that game, she was from a completely other part of the country, she had no connection with my uni or the discipline of the uni. I asked her for confirmation and she said she knew the two guys, so it was actually her.
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recently: I'm talking to a girl I met after being in contact on Facebook for 10 years. She's living in Paris, I'm living in Germany but we are both from Italy. Talking about an ex of mine, I ask her if she knows X because X and my ex have been together for a while. There was a slight chance she would have some kind of connection to him, but she says no, never heard of him. Then I start describing the guy, because he's the most toxic guy on the planet and there are a few very clear identifying informations. She says: "Ah, yes, I know the guy, I matched with him on a dating app when I was on vacation two years ago, he was nuts".
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one time I was hanging out with my friend G. I'm talking about my political activity as a general mutual update on how we are doing, and I mention among other things how I was trying to reach out to a few very specific publications which cover labor stuff in Italy. G is a painter, not really active in politics except very local community stuff. They say: "wait, you said xxx media? The editor-in-chief is my sister. Mind=blown". To add to this, I have known G for like 10 years and I never really registered they had a sister.
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I moved to a smaller city in South Korea in 2004 to teach English. A short while after I got there, I met a couple who were from a small town down the road from the small town I grew up in in Eastern Canada. Apparently we even went to the same small university (3000 students total) together and I somehow managed to never see them there.
I have a cousin who lived in and grew up in South-East Asia. I'm Canadian. A guy from my (small, rural) high school class was randomly at their wedding. Apparently they became roommates in college.
Did you marry your cousin, did she marry South-East Asia or was the guy from your high school randomly at his own wedding?
Huh, I looked hard and still don't get how this is unclear. The "their" isn't me because it's third person, and it can't be the region of South-East Asia or high school guy himself because that doesn't make sense. That should leave one possibility. Singular their is a thing, if you're unfamiliar.
I'll just clarify. My South-East Asian cousin married someone not in the story, and their college roommate, high school guy, was present as a guest, which was highly unexpected. Hilarity ensues.
It really is. You'll never hear "someone forgot their umbrella, I hope he/she comes back for it" in real, native speech. Singular "they" has been around in that context for centuries.
Using it for a specific, know person is new. In this case it's a specific unknown person, so it's optional, but I chose to, just because it minimises personal information shared. My cousin in not nonbinary, for what it's worth.
One from MMO. I got accepted to a guild and after some time I hear somewhat familiar voice in voice channel. Turned out it was guy from the same village I grew up in, I knew him and he was my sisters classmate.
One from RL. I went to second biggest city in my country and accidentally bumped to my friend (also elementary school classmate) at random street whom I haven't seen for years.
I got into a fender bender with someone I knew from college. Spun out on ice so we meet front to front when we bumped. Once the cars stopped I swear we both practically did the cartoon eye rub of disbelief lolol.
Not mine but old school crew story. Couple of lads bumped into each other in a bar in Europe - we from the States. Neither knew the other was traveling. Heard a distinct laugh across the pub and rest is history.
I met my first primary school bully two decades later at the Estonian consulate, who coincidentally also has the name of a local politician.
Well, people have always said that is the type of person to get into politics.
(they are, in fact, two separate people. He became a youth pastor. I also remember he stopped bullying me in year 3 when he found out I could draw dinosaurs pretty well)
Twice in games.
Once in a mmo type game I just started I spammed guild join requests to a bunch random guilds and by the time I came back I've been accepted to a certain guild. I vaguely recognised the guildmaster and after a while I asked him if he played that one game in the past AND HE DID! I've met him in a different game on some game server year earlier just as he was phasing out from playing this game and happened to see him a few times. It was a huge brainfuck to me that something like this even happened.
The second time was a few years later where I've been playing this one waiting simulator, city building/raiding game from my childhood. After a few weeks of playing I happened to mention it to my classmate and he mentioned that he plays it too. After he showed me his nickname I rocognised his nickname from an opponent clan my clan fighted some time ago.
This was the moment when I realised that nothing is real.
