It’s not that I think the U.S. Census Bureau is lying to us. I just think it’s severely mistaken. Five billion people in this world and 305 million in this country seem hard to believe when just the past few weeks alone I’ve seen Cameron Diaz, Jimmy Fallon, Emmy Rossum, Matt Lauer, Kristen Stewart, John Gosselin, Shakira, and shared an elevator with Nick Cannon.
But forget all the A through D list celebrities and John Gosselin for a moment. After all, it is New York City. The truly ‘small world’ encounters derive from the times we see a person we know in a completely unexpected setting. And the weekly sighting in Murray Hill of the random girl from freshman Stat class hardly counts anymore.
Walking home from work two weeks ago, I saw a girl smile at me on the sidewalk. While I’m no native New Yorker, I’ve lived here long enough to know nobody smiles at you on the streets. Even the slightest glance from a fellow pedestrian leaves us wondering if we have something in our teeth (Sorry Alicia, these streets aren’t THAT inspiring). I soon realized it was a girl I hadn’t seen since high school graduation night. Now what’s the only thing weirder than seeing someone you haven’t seen in five and a half years from Reno, Nevada on the streets of New York City? When that same person tells you that they also saw you the day before too but decided not to say anything.
I was no Homecoming King in high school; Hell, I couldn’t even get elected Junior Class Treasurer, but did she really dislike me that much to have just ignored me the day earlier? We caught up on our past and present then carried on with our busy New York lifestyles---her probably brainstorming a new evening dog walking route.
This past weekend, one of my roommates awoke me and a visiting high school friend to tell us that he had met some people living in New York from Reno the night before through his high school bud.
I’m not saying the only reason my friend wanted to accept my roommate’s brunch offer that morning was because the Reno people were probably going to be there, but I’m not saying it’s not either. When we met Matt Gallagher and his friends, I quickly realized I was on the track team in middle school with his younger brother. Okay. After all Reno is the biggest little city in the world. But then I met his girlfriend who happens to be best family friends with my college junior year roommate’s friend Kovacs. That makes two random and completely separate connections to these two.
Perhaps one of the only things more interesting than attempting to recall the statistical formula that would capture the probability of this ever occurring was hearing about Matt’s experience in Iraq and how the U.S. Army made him take down his blog, Kaboom after a controversial post. Shortly after, there was a Washington Post article published followed by a book deal offer. He is currently living in New York and working on his book scheduled to be released next year.
That night, a big group played flipcup at our apartment—I was on the “Reno” team versus “the World." The world was a mix of Long Island and Connecticut. And the guy from Kentucky who wanted to know who the most famous person to come out of Reno was. I bit my tongue as I reminded myself Kristi Yamaguchi only had a house there, but wasn’t actually from Reno. After a bit of back and forth, I heard it was decided that it was either that guy who murdered his wife or Shannon something from that Heath Ledger movie.
It would be a lie to say the show Reno 911 wasn’t based off real life. No really, the creator was watching an episode of COPS that took place in Reno. But as big as the world is. And as small as Reno is (220,000). It's always good to know, wherever you go, there's probably someone you know.
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