Thursday, January 23, 2014

One in Nine Million

I was recently on travel to New York City to attend a conference. Determined to keep focus on my work, I vowed to keep to the conference and my hotel room. I kept to fast food to keep within my budget and to, well, make it fast.

At the end of a long day I stepped into a McDonald's to get a bite to eat. The line was hideously long so I went to the diner next door. I was seated in a small booth and perused the menu. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a man standing nearby, looking down at me. I looked up and instantly recognized him: a childhood friend that I hadn't seen in at least twelve years. I knew he had moved to New York at some time in the past but that's about all I knew.

We spent the next few hours catching up. He revealed to me some tough times he was going through. Out of respect for his privacy I won't provide details. He needed to make some changes and he wasn't sure how to start. I recommended that he just simply... start; don't let the "cancer" grow another day. He did exactly that and turned his life around.

New York City has roughly nine million people living in its confines. To think that I randomly came across my friend among all of these people at a seemingly random point in time is astounding comforting.

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