Nice To Meet You

"So much has to happen in order for two people to meet."
---21 Grams

I just re-watched this film with a few friends (sidenote:  I'm fairly certain I've met the quota of how many times you can sit through "21 Grams" without sinking into a depression spiral), and this quote again jumped out at me.  It was something I've been thinking about lately, and I recalled hearing someone say this, but couldn't quite place it.  I guess it was fate that made my friends choose this movie (despite my many warnings that it would kill their buzz), so that I could pinpoint its source, and muse on it a little bit more.

It's true, if you really think about it.  I don't think anything can be a pure coincidence; there is always some sequence of events that have led us to our current place in life, and if the same goes for the people we meet, then it follows that our circumstances have aligned to allow us to know one another, even if only for a moment. 

Think about the people in your life-- friends, significant others, acquaintances.  How did you meet?  What pushed you to approach them and introduce yourself, or vice versa?  Why is that the way things went, at that particular moment, when there were a million equally plausible alternatives.  What if you and your best friend hadn't sat across the aisle from each other in that awful Astronomy 120 class?  What if your boyfriend had gone to a different bar the night you two met?  What if you'd followed your initial appraisal of that girl across the coffee shop, rather than made conversation and realized how much you had in common? 

Every time we meet someone new, no matter the circumstances, we're making connections.  We're connecting ourselves, not just to others, but to the universe itself.  In interacting with the people we are dropped into a situation alongside, we are cementing our place in this moment, right here, now.  We are in essence saying 'yes' to our own existences, and to the possibilities they offer us.

I think about all the people who are in my life now, and how things might have been if I hadn't met them, if our paths had never crossed.  It's a hazard, I suppose, of being on the cusp of graduation; you think about yourself at the beginning of this ridiculous journey, and how you never could have anticipated just about everything that followed.  I am grateful, eternally, that my path has led me the way it has.  I truly believe there is no one among the people I've met who hasn't shared something with me, supported me, or taught me something, about the world or about myself.  I wouldn't trade any of those awkward first meetings for the world, knowing now how much good came from them.

I'll try to keep this in mind the next time I meet someone new, or catch someone's eye across a crowded room.  I'll ask myself, what happened to bring us both here?  What do we have to give to each other?  Maybe it's just a smile, or a compliment to brighten a day.  But maybe it's so much more.