This refers to when two or more people encounter each other in completely coincidental fashion. You might notice your old classmate from three countries away is now your waiter in a place you had no reason to expect them in, and you might say "wow, what a small world". You might notice two people who you know from completely different spheres miraculously know each other. You might recognize by chance that your penpal has made a cameo at a venue you're at.
But what was your most profoundly coincidental encounter?
I knew a kid in elementary school, let's call him Brian S. He moved away in the 5th grade. Bye Brian 😢
6th grade. Spring vacation. My family drives us down to visit an aunt from upstate NY, down in North Carolina.
We have our vacation. It's now the following Saturday. We're driving home. We stop at a rest area on 95. I see Brian S and his family just walking from their car to the rest area. Same time as us.
We stop and chat for a few mins. It's the 90s so we can't like trade cell phone numbers or anything. I don't even think we had regular instant messaging screen names yet.