Do you ever think about how you may know someone that knows someone that probably knows your favorite actor or musician? Like how many degrees of separation do you think there are between me and Kanye West?
The following Redditors would claim that there probably isn't many.
For more stories, take a look at the source at the end of the article.
‘I Work With Your Grandmother’
“My buddy and I were on a ski lift in Vail, Colorado back when we were 16-years-old. Another kid our age hopped on with us, and we started talking. It started with the usual so ‘Where are you from?’
Him – ‘I’m from Springfield, Missouri.’
Me – ‘My grandma is from Springfield, Missouri!’
Him – ‘Actually, I’m from Willard. It’s a small suburb outside of Springfield.’
Me – ‘My grandma actually lives in Willard! She works at some local grocery store.’
Him – ‘I work at a grocery store in Willard.’
Me – ‘That’s where she works! She’s a short, red-headed lady.’
Him – ‘Glenda Dorner (made up name) is your grandma?’
Me – ‘YEA!’
Him – ‘I love her, she’s so nice!’
Me – ‘Hmmm, I wonder if there are 2 Glenda Dorners in Willard then.'”
‘It Turns Out We Were Neighbours’
“I was at a National Park this summer with my wife, more than 2000 miles away from home, and a stranger approached us at one of the viewing points. We started small-talking while we were all enjoying the view.
‘Where you from?’ he asked.
‘REGION OF CERTAIN STATE’, I replied.
‘Oh yeah, which part?’
‘SPECIFIC COUNTY’
‘Which town?’
‘SPECIFIC TOWN’
‘Which street?’
At this point, it was getting a little weird. But long story short, the guy was our neighbor from just a few streets over.”
‘A Friend Of A Friend’
“I’m from a town in Norway with a population of thirty-thousand. In the 8th grade, I moved to South Korea with my family. I went to a friend’s home, and he wanted to play PlayStation. So, he asked if he could play someone on PlayStation, who was also going to also play with us (let’s call him Alex). When he calls and says the guy’s name, I’m thinking, ‘Wait, what… I feel like I know this guy!’
Turns out, I went to elementary school with the guy he had called. So, my friend in South Korea was cousins with my other friend from a small town in Norway. What were the chances?
Not only that. But Alex went on a holiday in Spain, and he happened to meet my friend from another small town in Norway whom I had known from Kindergarten. Somehow my name came up, and they started talking about me.’
Even 1000 Miles Away
“My husband grew up in a tiny rural area, and we only moved 7 miles away from there to a slightly larger more suburban area. Every time we go anywhere in town, we run into someone he went to school with.
We were visiting my sister last year, and she happens to live in another state (which is about 1000 miles away). While we were at a restaurant having dinner, and I got carded when I ordered a drink. The waitress looked at my I.D and said ‘Wait, you’re from (said city)? I grew up there! My family still lives there!”
Yeah, she was a grade below my husband in school, and he was in the same grade as her sister. I cannot escape my husband running into people he went to school with even when we’re 1,000 miles away from where he grew up.”
‘We’re Still Friends To This Day’
“I went to Disneyland when I was 12. I’m from Canada, so it was quite the trip! On the bus leaving the park, I saw this other little girl with a Nintendo DS, and I wanted to play. Naturally, being the outgoing kid that I was (with no social boundaries, mind you), I asked her to be my friend. She and I talked the entire bus ride.
During the conversation, I mentioned my favorite teacher at the time (we’ll just call him Mr. Appleseed). She looks at me completely shocked and says, ‘You mean Jamie Appleseed?’
It turns out, my teacher was her uncle. She also happened to live an hour away from me back home in Canada. We’re still friends to this day.”
‘His Girlfriend Lives In My Old Apartment’
“Last year, I had this fling with a guy. He liked me and told me such as well. At that point in time, I had a lot going on in my life, so I rejected him. We remained friends. Later that fall, we ended up talking a lot more, and I started to… well, not develop feelings for him, but I was interested. We hung out a bit (as friends,) and after a while, he informed me that he was hooking up with this girl. Oh, well. We remain friends but eventually lost contact.
Later on, he was in a relationship with this girl whom I don’t know nor had I ever met, but because I was feeling curious, I found her on Instagram. By the way, I live in the second-largest city in my country with over a million inhabitants. Anyway, I recognized the apartment in the girl’s pictures. I also recognized the view, so I investigated further. It turns out, she was living in my old apartment! She was the one who got my keys and moved in just days after I hadmoved out. The odds.”
Mixed Up Orders
“I ordered delivery food, and when we received it, the whole order was incorrect. So, we went to the restaurant to get it fixed and ran into the people whose food we got (and who got ours). It was my son’s then-girlfriend and her family.”
At Disney World
“I worked at Disney for a summer on the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride. I loaded a childhood acquaintance I hadn’t seen in 10 years on a boat with their whole family. They moved across the country when we were children, and we weren’t even Facebook friends.”
‘I Danced With His Wife’
“I left a soccer game in Liverpool and walked a few blocks to grab a cab to get downtown. Another couple tried to steal my cab, and I got in with them. We were both going downtown and got talking. They were from the same small town (about 200 people) that my cousins were from and were at their wedding with my family. The wedding was smaller than 100 people, and apparently, I danced with his wife at one point.”
‘I Found A Distant Cousin I Vegas’
“I was in Vegas at a $50 blackjack table where I was winning consistently. The pit boss comes over and starts a conversation with me because he thinks that I’m card counting or something, so to try and break my concentration. I stop playing, find out that he has the same last name as me, and that we are distant cousins. Then he compliments me and my wife to a free night and dinner.”
‘I Took Classes With A Famous Instagramer’s Husband’
“I follow a few hikers on Instagram. You know the types that have twenty-thousand or more followers who post two or three photos a day.
One of the women that I followed would occasionally make references to her boyfriend while on hikes, until one day, she included him in one of her photos. Sure enough, I knew the guy!
I had recently taken several college classes with this guy, and we had even worked on a big project together. Funny how life works.”
‘We Hooked Up With The Same Guy’
“I’m from Chicago and studied abroad in Amsterdam in the fall of 2016. I went to Dublin for a weekend and hooked up with an Irish guy and added him on Snapchat afterward.
I came back to America in January. Spring break (March 2017) rolls around, and my roommates go to Cancun. The Irish guy and my roommates post a Snapchat story at the same time, so their stories are back-to-back, and I notice that they’re in the same room and lobby area. It turns out, the Irish guy was also vacationing in Cancun and was staying at the same hotel as my roommates.
My roommates returned the following weekend, and I mentioned to one of them how coincidental it was that they were at the same hotel with a guy I had hooked up with while in a foreign country months ago. My roommate then says how she had also hooked up with an Irish dude while in Cancun, and I show her a picture of the guy that I had hooked up with while in Dublin. Lo and behold we had hooked up with the same guy.”
‘In The Same Place At The Exact Same Time’
“Once, when I was at a German movie theater, a girl from my high school class was sitting in the seat in front of me. We were both from the U.S.
Another incident was when I was eating dinner in an NYC restaurant, and my next door neighbors from two states away walked in to have dinner. Neither of us knew that the other was traveling to NYC that weekend.”
‘I Called Into Work and Saw My Boss’
“I called off work to go to Vegas for a long weekend. I arrived, checked into the hotel, and went down to gamble for a bit. I was walking into the bathroom when I heard my name. Sure enough, one of the managers was walking out of the bathroom at the same time. We were about 2000 miles away from home.
Luckily, he was cool and never mentioned it to my direct boss. He had me scared the rest of the weekend though!”
Transfer Of The Cats
“My wife and her co-worker were talking about their cats. The lady she works with mentioned that her son was serving as an Embassy Guard in the Marines and that he was given the cat by one of the staff members who had transferred to another post and couldn’t take it along with. He brought the cat back to the States once he was discharged and gave it to her when he moved into an apartment that didn’t allow pets.
The co-worker mentioned that the woman who gave him the cat was in a specific position at a specific embassy, and it turned out to be my sister.”
Connecting Flights
“On a three-hour layover in the Amsterdam airport, on my way back home to Atlanta from Rome, I get up to go find some food and pass the escalator. Coming up the escalator is my mother who had just landed from Seattle and was on her way to a connecting flight to Frankfurt.
Neither one of us knew the other would be traveling or where to, and I hadn’t talked to her in about a month. Just complete coincidence that we happened to have flights going through the same city at the same time.”
Recognized In A Different Country
“I became an exotic dancer in London as soon as I turned 18 and moved from another city. I sat down to talk to this guy, and straight away, he told me what city I was from. I told him, ‘Yes! How did you know?’.
He told me he saw me months before in H&M and pointed me out to his wife saying, ‘Look at how beautiful that girl is’. Pretty amazing he could recognize me without makeup and months apart. He remembered the exact outfit I was wearing, too and how I had worn my hair.”
Third Times A Charm
“My mom and stepdad met a couple from Gothenburg (we are from Stockholm in Mexico) and became vacation buddies.
About a year later they met in Malaysia with NO knowledge about each other’s travel plans and about 13 months after their second encounter our whole family was on vacation to Tobago when the same couple called out my mom’s name. They met this same couple, a total of 3 times in different countries with zero knowledge about each other’s travel plans not even exchanged social media accounts (since mom does not have any).”
‘I Ran Into The Same Famous Person Twice’
“I went to dinner before a concert in the midwest city where I’m from and ran into a famous guy. I discreetly said, ‘Hi, I like your work, enjoy my city, etc.’
Then, a month later, I had moved back to northern France where I had lived before. I took a weekend trip up to Amsterdam (as it’s my favorite city) and ran into the same old famous guy. He remembered running into me a month prior in a different city, in a different country, on a different continent. However, hr didn’t seem to find it nearly as odd as I did.”
What A Way To Meet My Neighbors
“I was on a beach in Mexico, well over 1500 miles from home, and this couple asked if we were using the chairs next to us. We started talking throughout the day and quickly found out that we had both graduated from the same college and that we currently lived less than 5 miles from each other.
So, I had to go on vacation to meet my neighbors.”
‘My Brother Is Marrying My Former Teacher’
“My stepbrother is marrying one of my middle school teachers. I’ve been out of middle school for 15 years.
It’s a small-ish town…but, still. I find it weird.
I have always liked her, though, which is why I find it great.”
Back To Chicago
“I got back to Chicago after a stay in Galway, Ireland. Within 2 weeks, I ran into two people, who were from Galway, during my day-to-day life here in Chicago.
The first guy was working as a clerk at a hot dog place near DePaul, and the other guy was wearing a Galway Hurler’s kit in the grocery store down the street from my house.”
Article Source
Points are edited for clarity.