It Can Be A Small World Sometimes

Sometimes the world can seem a large place, but other times, its absolutely freaky how small it can be. Previously I had written a post about Six Degrees of Separation and how each person in this world is somehow linked to every other person in the world through six other people.

I have a second story to add to that Six Degrees of Separation post now. It's a couple of unrelated events (well the common thing is me) that has happened in the past two days.

The first story is less spectacular. So yesterday I had gone to the comedy festival with some friends. One friend, Harinder, brought along his friend Charles. I had met Charles once before but otherwise didn't really know him. After some talking, I found out that Charles actually went to the same uni as me (not that strange since Monash Clayton does have lots of students) and we even did the same course during the same year (a bit stranger) but yet I didn't know him at all. After more talking, I happened to mention my surname and Charles asks "Do you have a sister." And I said yes. Then he asked her name and where she used to work. I told him that was correct. It turns out that my sister's first job after uni was also where Charles had worked temporarily. Pretty strange eh.

Where my sister used to work was also where my other friend Kevin used to work. He had in fact told me about the position since he was going to be leaving and advised me to apply. I told him the job wasn't for me but maybe my sister would like to apply. I told my sis about the job on the same day that she said she had got a job interview, so we didn't think twice about the job I had told her. Months later, I find out that my sister was working at the job Kevin had told me about. This was because Kevin came to my place one time and saw my sis, and he starts talking to her. Only then did we all know that my sister actually knew Kevin since he went back to the old work place occasionally to help out. Kevin didn't know that that was my sister and my sister didn't know that Kevin was my friend. Only then did we know that the job Kevin told me about months ago was the same job my sister had applied for. Small world wouldn't you say.

Tonight though, I can top that story even. I was chatting on MSN when someone sends me a message. I didn't know this person so asked who they were. She said her name and was looking for Thanh. I said that was me. So I asked her how she got my contact. She said it was through her friend Justin, and I asked which Justin. It was my friend Justin that I went to the comedy festival with. So anyway, I say I don't know her, and maybe she was looking for another Thanh, not me, Thanh Do. At the mention of my surname, she then asked if I went to Cabramatta Primary School, which I said I did. Then she said that she also went there and might have been in my class. After some more discussion, it turns out that we were in the same class. Unbelievable. She was only at the school from grade 1-3 while I was there from grade 2-4 and yet we managed to be in the same class and "bump" (cyber-bump anyway) into each other over MSN by accident. The fact that she remembered my name is even more unbelievable. I have a terrible memory for names. I'm good with faces but terrible with names. I couldn't remember her at all, in fact I can't remember anyone's name from before grade 4.

I go and dig up my old school photos from grade 1 but I can't recognise which one in the photo she is. We didn't have names printed on those photos, so I don't know who is who. Her current photo doesn't help much since its pretty hard to spot most people's faces from when they're young. But we'll probably chat some more in future and that might jog my memory.

So there are my two stories of how small the world can be sometimes. With the advent of the internet, it's even easier to bump into people. You just never know who you will meet. The fact that I now "know" so many people all over the world from their blogs is a testament to how small the world can be. I hope one day to meet you all in real life and share a coffee and some cake (mmmm cake) with you.