We Were Meant To Meet

Back in 2006, I was in my last semester of college in Canada. My roommate from the year prior was driving up to visit from Portland and bringing a new friend with her. I was selfish and in college and in my college social circle world and though excited my friend was visiting, I hadn't given a second thought to the friend she was bringing with her.

As it turns out, this friend visiting with my old roommate ended up being such a kindred spirit to me. We developed such an independent close friendship that I visited her in Portland and when I moved home to California, she visited me there as well. Her mom ended up becoming a pseudo-mom to me the next couple of years during a rocky transitional time in my life. My brother even stayed at this friend from college's friend's parent's house and loved hanging with her dad. Ya follow?

Tonight, I hear through a friend that he saw an ex-whatever-we-were on a date with a girl. He described the girl to me, complete with the description of the bouquet of flowers he brought her. It was a girl I knew from a few years ago. They met each other at a wedding we were all involved in a few days ago. This ex wouldn't have been at this wedding if it weren't for me introducing him to the newlyweds. Ya follow?

A few months ago, one of the sweetest couples and honestly, best people in the world, had a baby girl. She is their first. 6 years ago, they had walked down the aisle and committed the rest of their lives to each other. 2 years before that, their pinkie fingers had grazed each other as they leaned back in the grass in English Bay and watched Vancouver's Symphony of Fire fireworks show. It was my birthday. I knew them both from totally different worlds and we were all together to celebrate my 23rd birthday. Ya follow?

That last story makes me so insanely happy inside. When I think of that story I am reminded that we never know what someone will mean to us. We don't have in INKLING how someone will affect us, or what we might say to someone that will change the direction of something in their lives, or how they may be the ones who are there for us at the worst times. Or best possible times.

It helps me feel better about the first two stories. I can be happy for my ex-whatever-we-were in hopes that maybe he will know how to love this girl differently than he has been able to before. Maybe he just needed to meet her. And the old roommate's friend in the first story? We aren't really friends anymore. I don't really know why. But I have to think that maybe that space needed to be filled by someone else. It of course makes me sad, but from the perspective that we never know what someone will mean to us, I can have faith that it is all OK.

I'll end with a story of how I got my dog.

My younger sister got the dog as a tiny puppy. She was living at home and hid the dog from my parents. She came out with it and got to keep her and spent alot of time training her. One day she hopped onto Myspace and put her up for adoption. The end of that day, she felt guilty and sad and kept the dog anyway. I came home to visit and hated the dog. She was snappy and bit a lot and had too much energy. Her snout had gotten much longer than her puppy snout and so had her body. I just wasn't into it. Around the time I moved home permanently, my sister also met her future husband. Said future husband did not want the dog at his house. Guess who inherited Roxy Beans? Roxy has become my partner in crime, my morning coffee routine, a neighborhood sensation and my pillow to cry on. I know it may sound a little pathetic, but its another way that you never know what someone (or something) :) will mean to you.