Small world after all

They say New York City is a melting pot for people from all different races, backgrounds, ages, religions, cultures. People from all over the world congregate in this small corner of the globe with hopes of learning more about themselves and others via close-quarter daily interactions. Given this truth, then, I guess it makes sense that living in the city really makes you realize just how small the world really is.

Take, for instance, the fact that my roommate (randomly assigned) was best friends with my former USC roommate back in third grade, when both of them lived in Oregon.

Or the fact that at least two people I know are settled into the same apartment complex as me.

Or the strange happenstance that my apartment - nay, my room - nay, my BED - is the one and the same as the one my childhood friend occupied for 1.5 years as a student at NYU.

Too many coincidences, too much serendipity, to not reason that everything happens for a reason and that things turn out the way they're supposed to in the end. It's turned from a series of What if's to a steady parade of Can you believe it's? And I think being pleasantly surprised like this is a pretty dang good thing.

The other day, I was in line for student rush tickets for Billy Elliot, and it didn't look as though the theatre was going to be selling any due to poor planning. Having worked in a theatre as an usher (random, I know, but a great experience), I know that the policy is for each theatre to reserve a certain number of tickets as student rush - else it wouldn't be fair to advertise the possibility at all. This was not the case.

The management informed the 20+ students in line that there were only 15 tickets left for the entire show that day - and seeing as how there was still a trickle of last-minute patrons paying full price for the remaining tickets, it didn't look like any would be released to the students.

I counted the students ahead of me in line. Nine. It was a gamble. If each student bought two tickets, it would be pointless to wait. If each bought just one, I was guaranteed to buy the two (one for me, one for the madre) I needed, and thus beat the system, albeit wait in line for a while.

Now, given that student rush meant prime tickets for $24 (regularly priced $160), I didn't want to forfeit the chance of ridiculously cheap tickets by stepping out of line if there was a sliver of a chance I could score the tickets.

As luck would have it, one of the girls ahead of me in line happened to live in the same building as me - we'd met and spoken briefly in the elevator when we both moved in on Sunday. We started chatting (there wasn't much else to do while everyone around us was getting angry and feisty with the management) and realized we knew some of the same people.

We had a good conversation, something I wouldn't have expected from five seconds in an elevator ride and a familiar face.

That's when the ticket manager declared that all tickets were to be sold for half price, no student discounts, at $81.50 - take it or leave it. My friend in line decided to opt out - she'd been banking on student tickets and decided to swing by another time. She gave me her place further up in line and left.

I got the last two tickets.

Small world, huge chances. Strange circumstances, happy surprises.

It's kind of ridiculous, this kind of luck. But I ain't questioning it. (: