Small world

When I was in Cambridge last week I thought I saw one of Emma's friends who visited Utrecht last term. Unfortunately, being in my own world at the time, I didn't realise that I recognised her until sometime later at which point it was rather too late to go back and check. However, a post event clarification has confirmed that it was indeed her.

Unexpectedly bumping into people in all the wrong places is actually surprisingly common. I spotted loads of people in London this Summer, but perhaps that's to be expected. After the first year at Uni I saw Flora in Penzance's shopping centre of all places, with my first comment being a cheery and welcoming 'what are you doing here?!'. But perhaps the most far fetched occurrence has come through me getting to know Bart, who spent an Erasmus year at Jesus last year, and who organised the Legal English course I taught earlier this year. His girlfriend goes to Oxford and I've met her a couple of times, but the oddest thing is that she went to school with Lottie and the two are still good friends. This is bizarre in itself, but even stranger, his girlfriend is also good friends with someone I went to secondary school with back in Penzance.

Now that I've met people from the UK, Spain, America, Germany, France, the Netherlands etc, I can't help but wonder who else I'll bump into wherever I eventually end up.

This all got me thinking. It seems amazing how I can come all the way to a different country and meet someone who knows two friends of mine. There's no pattern to it and it's all entirely random. People talk about the six degrees of separation rule, but in my experience it's often much lower. But how about this for food for thought: If it can be that I can quite randomly met these people, then how many other people do I have some sort of connection with, yet walk past each day without noticing them?