intersecting lines

I was just on my phone, trying to clean up the text messages, and got sucked into rereading them. And magically, though my phone deleted my texts from a month back, it decided to keep those from 2, 3 yrs ago. And now that im done looking through them, im sitting here, bewildered.

A friend once wrote me this, and she wasn’t a super close friend or someone that would make a gigantic impact on my life or sth, because throughout the time i knew her, our interactions were minimal. Perhaps we chose not to let the friendship grow, perhaps we saw little potential in it that we didn’t want to devote the time and energy. But what she wrote to me, i don’t remember word by word, but the idea, the idea has stuck and lived in me ever since. I’ll try my best to convey this message.

So, 7 billion people in this world. Most of them - most of us, will never cross paths.

Imagine each of us a line, of different lengths - because our life time spans a different space-time. These lines are oriented in all different directions, which makes the whole picture very chaotic.

And then most lines are parallel - the people you will never get the chance to cross path even just for half a second, never ever in your entire existence. But some, very few, if you consider the 7 billion people on this earth, intersect - the people that cross paths. Whether it's bumping into each other on the street, apologizing and moving on with your lives paying no mind, or it's meeting the person that stays and becomes a piece of you that would live on long after they left. Either way, your line and theirs intersected.

The fact that you even met anyone in your life is pure wonder, because it really is one-in-a-billion chance. So always be grateful for everyone that has ever been in your life.

When i read those texts, i felt like i was going back in time and transported to that time and space. And eventually i switched back to being myself right here right now. And it struck me how little i knew what the future holds. Little did i know that these people, these current people that i surround myself with, would be in my life and influencing me this way. If I could go back in time and tell my old self hey when you're 22 you're gonna hang out with a bunch of people who look nothing like you yet you will laugh until you can't breathe and cry to those who don't speak your language - and my old self would laugh "Yeah, right".

And the problems i had back then that worked me up so much, how little they matter now. I didn’t even remember them happening until i reread this. Teacher calling you names and telling your parents how you often skip classes? Eh, all I remember is the good time by the pool with my friends and riding around the city. I turned out just fine anyway. Crying yourself to sleep every night feeling like you're alone against this world? Turns out that is true but wouldn't bother me as much these days. It always feels like the end of the world at that moment. But once you're out of it, it's magical that the world actually kept spinning.

So trust in the future. If you ever lose hope in the present, trust in the future.

Really for the first time in a very long time I’m just happy. Not because a stranger was nice for me today not because I got a promotion not because I ate a good meal. There's no reason to it, I just feel happy.

So im definitely keeping this post here for any future downs.