Six Degrees To.........Cocotte?

I recently discovered that college daughter's math professor is someone I knew 25 years ago. He was in my church youth group in junior and senior high. My family attended a mega-church then and one of the benefits was having lots of youth group activities. There was always a ski trip, canoe adventure, or amusement park outing to sign up for. What was really cool for me was getting to know people outside of my own high school. I'd guess that our core group represented about 30 different high schools.

Later on, in college and at various jobs, I'd meet people and ask where they were from. And if they were from the tri-county area, I'd almost always be able to say, "oh, did you know so and so from your high school?" It's amazing how small the world really is. And often times, it was fun to see their reaction of, "you've heard of my high school?" Which I always found surprising. I guess some people don't get out much and enjoy hibernating in their own little microcosm of the world.

My husband is such a person. Before I met him, he'd probably dated about eight other girls, with a few being serious..........BUT, they were all from his hometown! I thought that was really bizarre. He says he always hated the first day of school and starting a new job, because he finds it difficult to have conversations with new people.

In contrast, I have always loved meeting new people. A party where I won't know a single soul? I'm there! And more than likely, I'll leave with a new best friend. I've always found it easy to connect with people and I am fascinated with the concept of only being six degrees away from anyone else in the world. That's probably why blogging is so much fun for many of us. I enjoy seeing bloggers I "know" on a variety of different blogs. And I'll bet it wouldn't take long for some of us to connect to someone we know in real life, through knowing a friend of a friend of a friend.

Whenever we go places, my kids become exasperated with me because I will see someone I know and stop to chat. They always say, "Mom knows everybody." I like to tell them, "that's right - so you'd better watch what you're doing because there will always be someone who can report back to me." And chances are, that someone could be you, dear reader!