A while ago, I started writing a post about wanting to be friends with a person whom I have never met, but whose facebook profile I randomly stumbled on through some friends of friends’ profiles. His profile/albums/wall comments really struck a chord with me, and I immediately said to myself, “wow, I really wish I could meet him, become friends with him, and have him in my social circle.” I ended up not finishing the post because even I thought it was too stalker-like. Besides, I knew that the chances of my actually meeting the person were slim to none.

Enter tonight. My friend Amy had an Easter potluck dinner thing at her place. At the potluck, I most unexpectedly met the guy behind the facebook profile. The whole encounter was like a scene straight out of the movies, very surreal. He was there already when I arrived, standing next to the windows on the far side of the room, looking out the window with his back to the room. As I walked in, he turned around (cue in slow motion), and I almost dropped the plate of lasagna in my hands out of shock. Here he was; the man behind the profile. I recognized him right away. It turned out that we have some common friends. The slim-to-none chances of our ever meeting just became 100%.

I played it cool, didn’t introduce myself right away, but eventually got to it ~10 minutes later: “hi, I don’t think we’ve met before. My name is Shan.”

It turns out that the things in his profile that struck a chord with me don’t really come through in person, which was disappointing. But at least now I know.