From time to time I wake up with a very specific thought or idea that tends to keep me up for hours. It’s strange because this occurrence typically happens around 4:14am and it’s happening more frequently. Maybe it’s an age thing, I don’t know. This morning I woke up thinking about connection and why things happen the way they do. Specifically, I was thinking about people and why we’re connected to the people we’re connected too.
I think about people we meet in our lives that become great friends or people who change our typical day - a lot of times these people are met based off of random decisions. You meet your significant other because you took a random trip to Ikea, or you meet your new boss because you decide to have a beer at lunch. Are these events random? Are they supposed to be?
I was thinking about how I met two of my best friends. My one buddy I met when I was 9 years old. I stole his girlfriend (aka I took her out for ice cream) and he confronted me in what might be the greatest playground confrontation ever. But we didn’t become great friends until high school when we both happen to be in summer school together. Since summer school algebra, we’ve been like brothers.
This is where I note that I’m from a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin called Greendale where the population was roughly 150% white families. This guy I’m talking about is a black guy from Milwaukee. Fortunately for me he took the bus into Greendale. The point that I’m getting at is the odds weren’t in our favor but through random life happenings we were connected, not once, but twice. I should also note the other friend I mentioned is also a black dude. His girlfriend’s locker happened to be next to mine in high school.
The question is, were my friends and I connected and supposed to end up best friends? At this moment I don’t want to open up the can of worms of “is life pre determined” but I think when talking about connectivity you kind of have to walk that line. Do we have a connection to everyone around us? I think we do.
I like to think of moments of connection as explosions. When you interact with someone you’re either going to create a small explosion where your impact doesn’t affect those around you or a large explosion where your impact is so large that the radius starts to hit other people and change them.
So is it up to you to make the connection? Is the connection going to happen no matter what? I haven’t quite made up my mind on that part. But what I have made up my mind about is that connections and life moments go hand in hand. Whomever you connect with will set you in a path to change how your life is led, and on the flip side you have the power to change the life of another just by a moment.
There is a beauty in connection. It’s a bitch to wrap your head around once you start peeling the multiple layers, but those multiple layers are the best part about it.
Ultimately I think that you/me/we should never stop connecting or embracing the moments that connections create … I think it’s the best part about life. Whether it’s supposed to happen or not.