I had one of those strange days yesterday where I was suddenly taken back to my high school days. I ran into two friends from high school within a few hours of each other. Now it isn't really an oddity that this happens. I only live about 1.5 hours from where we all graduated and it is natural for many of us to move to the Twin Cities. However, a couple of my good pals from HS have joked that the world revolves around our home town (All things Austin). We get a kick out of running into people while we are in the other Austin (Texas), NYC and other parts of the world. We swear Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon should be changed to Six Degrees of Austin. It seems many people know someone from this small town in southern MN.
So, I was sitting at lunch with the facilitator I hired for yesterdays session when my junior year prom date strolled by. OK. This one isn't so weird as we do see each other from time to time. (One would think we would see each other at work more but we aren't in the same building and 10,000 people land on this six block plot of land each day.) However, I haven't seen him since before I got pregnant so it was 'out of the blue' that we saw each other.
The second came while I was heading to my yoga class. My class is being held at an education center in the NE metro. I was already late for class but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my pal from HS. I hadn't seen this pal in several years (like nearly 10). He and his wife were there to attend conferences with his son's preschool teacher which were being held across the hall from my yoga class. Now really, how random is it that? I was really good friends with this guy in HS and he was a rock when I went crazy for a little while. I lost track of him when he moved 'up north' to work in radio for a spell. I went to college and moved into the next phase and we just never reconnected when he moved to the TC. And here we are. Standing in a hall catching up for a brief moment, talking about kids. Amazing. Turns out we live only one burb over from each other.
Times like these make me wonder how many times I come near people who have been in my life but don't see them. Throughout my life I have had these experiences.
While living in Spain I befriended a couple of gals from Northwestern who were good friends with two friends of mine from HS in Fremont, NE. I moved back to MN from Fremont before my junior year in HS.
During college I became friends with a guy from SD. His senior year in HS he 'hosted' members from a band who were on tour and playing in his hometown. That band was from MN. The drummer was my boyfriend at the time. (We learned this after about 2 weeks of going to shows and talking about our SOs)
However, nothing beats the six degrees (more like one degree) with regards to my husband. On more than one occassion we know we were in the same room and/or at the same event but never crossed paths. As a mutual friend noted when I told her we were dating, "God waited until you were both in the right frame of mind before having you actually meet". I don't doubt it.
2 comments:
Crazy weird. Yes indeed.
Steve & I lived about a 1/2 a block from each other for the same 3 month period 9 years before we met. We also worked at the SAME BAKERY briefly but off by a few months. Weird. Yup - sometimes it just has to be the right time.
It is strange how things happen.
I used to go get pizza on an almost weekly basis from the Hut in dinkytown when Peder was working there and I was attending the U. I also lived just down the street from his sister in law when I was in Mankato.
When I started working in minneapolis schools, the orientation was like a high school reunion. I can't believe how many of us came back to teach where we went to school.
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