It's a Small, Small World

Sometimes life is so full of coincidences that it simply defies belief. For example, I studied at Washington University in St. Louis. My roommate Amanda's mom grew up in St. Louis and her parents moved back there a couple years ago (she grew up in Texas). And Amanda's best friend in Dortmund, Becky, who she met because she heard her talking English in a subway station, grew up in St. Louis and moved here after college to live with her (German) boyfriend who she met while studying abroad in Spain. And now we're all in Dortmund, Germany of all places!

However a bigger coincidence, and the impetus behind this post, goes something like this: one day in December I'm riding the subway with an American friend. We're sitting next to two guys, one young, one rather older, talking in German, but we're not really paying attention to them but chatting away in English. After a couple stops the older man gets off the subway. As soon as he leaves the young guy next to me turns to me and says, in (American) English, "so where are you from?" Totally shocked to be accidentally sitting next to another American on the subway, I told him I was from Spokane, Washington. I was even more shocked when he replied, "Really?? I'm from the Tri-Cities!" Turns out he's a Mormon and halfway through his two-year mission, so we start talking about Eastern Washington and find out other things in common, such as that his family always vacations at Priest Lake, Idaho, just like mine.

Two people from Eastern Washington (not a heavily-populated area) randomly meeting in Dortmund would have been enough of a coincidence on it's own, but then today my roommate comes home and tells me, "I met your mormon on the subway today." She got on the subway home from work this afternoon, heard a guy speaking German with an American accent, deduced from the business-esque clothes and nametag that he must be mormon, and as soon as the seat next to him opened up, sat down next to him and said, in typical Amanda fashion, "don't try to convert me or anything, but are you mormon? And do you come from the Spokane area?" The poor guy managed to overcome his confusion and amazement at this crazy American girl who appeared out of nowhere and somehow knew his life story to respond in the affirmative. So there you go: there is a Mormon missionary from the Spokane area living in Dortmund and my roommate and I both independently managed to sit next to him on the subway. And there you have it, the crazy coincidences of Katherine Kerschen (check out that alliteration!)