It's a Small World, After All

Arguably, a great number of people come to New York City to get away from that small town everyone-knows-everyone thing. What no one tells you though is that, somehow, New York is just like one giant small town. "But Hanna," you may object, "New York City has millions of people. How can it possibly be like a small town?" I'll tell you how.

     Wednesday, June 8, in the midst of a somewhat slow day (it being my last week and all) I notice two young women walking in to the art department with one of the editors. This should have been something I brushed aside, since I am not a part of the art department. But as I watched them pass by me, I noticed something. They looked familiar. And each time they passed, for a grand total of three or four times, I was more and more sure that I knew them. But not sure enough to stand up and say something. After they had gone, I asked the editor with whom I had seen them walking and sure enough, they were who I thought. Two girls who I had been in a program with - in middle school. I hadn't seen them since 8th grade, in Fairfax County, Virginia, but they reappeared in my life in Manhattan - not just on the street, but in the very office in which I worked.
     But it didn't end there. Later that day, as I walked home from grabbing a drink with a coworker, I glanced at a young man heading the other way down the street. And then I glanced again, as did he. It turned out to be someone from my high school - in fact, someone who I had attended seventh through twelfth grades with. And instead of running into him in Virginia, I ran into him on a street in the village.
     "Now Hanna," you might say, "just because you had a couple of weird experiences doesn't mean this is a real thing. It could be a fluke." Yes, yes. It would be if I were the only one*. Another intern I had the pleasure of knowing saw someone she went to high school with (in Georgia) in a subway station. A coworker saw her hairdresser from Richmond in a Barnes & Noble. Perhaps Manhattan is the land of cosmic coincidences. Or maybe it's just a really big small town.

*and since I wrote this, I've run into another high school classmate - this time in the NYU dining hall