Sliding doors

So this past Friday a friend came into my bar with his coworkers for lunch. At the end of their lunch, while making small talk with me, my friend tells me that his coworker also used to live in Thailand. I said, "Oh yeah? For what?" Most people tell me they did a semester there, were backpacking, or were there for work. She replied, "I just lived there," she added, "for 8 years." I said oh me too but they were my earlier years. She told me she used to go to 2 different international schools, one of which I had also attended when I was younger. It's very rare that I meet people here in the states who also went to that school. She looked at me and said, "Come to think of it, you kinda look familiar. Your smile is looking very familiar." I laughed and said that's funny that my smile is still the same from when I was younger. She looked at me and pushed further. "No really," she said, " I was at that school from '85-'92, what is your name? Do you remember which teacher you had?" I couldn't recall but I did attend the school during those years as well. I said well what's your name? She said Tanya G. I still didn't think I knew her, her last name didn't ring a bell, but then I thought, hmm, Tanya is sounding familiar. I said wait, did you use to have curly blonde hair? She said, "yes." I said did your parents have a water bed? I know this sounds like a weird question, the random things you remember, but at the time, as kids, water beds seemed to be the coolest thing ever. She said, "yes." That's when I said oh my god, I used to go over to your house all the time and jump on their bed with you and swim in your pool! Slowly we started recalling random foggy memories and it turns out she was one of my schoolmates, 20 years ago, on the other side of the world.

How crazy is that? All afternoon I couldn't wrap my head around this random coincidence. Had my friend not mentioned she lived in Thailand, we would have spoken briefly and never known that we were two people who played together 20 years ago. (that makes me feel old by the way). I feel like it's a scene out of a movie! Two strangers who could have such a close encounter and had one detail been different they would have completely missed the opportunity to find out their connection.

So today I went digging through my boxes to try to find our old pictures. So far I found one and the memories are totally flooding back. Will post as soon as I scan it!