Statistics 200
Coincidences 2004

A coincidence is a surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, but with no apparent causal connection. Should we really be surprised by these coincidences? Remember that when so many "unlikely" events are possible, according to the laws of probability, some of them are bound to happen. Like these...

(K.S.) Last May I broke up with my boyfriend of two years. The day after we broke up I decided to go to the movies with some friends in a town about 30 minutes from my hometown. We walked into the theater and sat down and about two minutes before the movie started in walked my ex and his brothers and they sat down right in front of us. The reason it was coincidental is that that particular movie theater was 30 minutes away from both of our houses and there were about 10 movies playing at that particular theater. It seemed awfully coincidental that we would both choose to go to the same movie, the same showing, on the same day at the same theater and that he would sit in the row directly in front of me. I suppose considering we had been together so long and shared many of the same interests, the chance that we would both want to see the same movie is not that coincidental and his brothers, like my friends, probably wanted to take him somewhere out of town so that he would get his mind off of the whole breakup. It just so happened they had the same plan and it ended up being more awkward than anything.

(M.B.) Every October my family and I travel to Hidden Valley for the weekend to attend Oktoberfest at Seven Springs Resort. We stay in Hidden Valley because a friend of the family owns a townhouse there. My mother met this friend, Don, when she and her best friend, Melissa, owned a flower shop in Charleroi, where Don owned a BBQ. Melissa and my mother have been best friends since, and we are like family now. Anyway, my family and Melissa's family were in Hidden Valley one weekend when the kids (including myself) went outside to play in the woods. While we were out there, we met a few other kids that looked rather familiar to me, and then it hit me. I saw them at Melissa's family reunion, but they were from Michigan. I asked them if they knew Melissa but they didn't recognize her name. But when I said Melissa's mom's name, they said that she was their great-aunt. As it turns out, members from the same family, some from Pennsylvania and some from Michigan, often visited the same resort, but neither knew that the other one was there.

(E.C.) I have had many coincidences in my life. Once, at the beginning of the year, I decided to take a weekend trip home to surprise my family. I didn't tell them I was coming. I was on my way back to Williamsport on Friday night. My phone rang about two hours into the trip, and it was my roommate telling me that my family had just arrived in Pittsburgh! They were planning to surprise ME! My friend driving me was nice enough to drive me back. It was a very ironic coincidence! I suppose it wasn't very unlikely that this would happen, because neither party had communicated on their plans.

(K.K.) The girls next door to me at school are from my rival school and we knew each other and the girl in the room on the other side of them went to my highschool. I thought that was a coincidence that we all ended up in the same building on the same floor with ajoining rooms. I assume they are kind of unlikely, since their were three different rooms instead of just two.

(L.G.) I have a short coincidence story. When I came to Pitt I thought about playing on an intramural volleyball team because that is my favorite sport and I couldn't imagine giving it up. So signups for activities rolled around and my 2 other friends and I went looking to sign up for various activities. We saw a volleyball table and we all signed up. We got an email from the team later telling us when tryouts were. We had accidentally signed up for the Club volleyball team. My 2 friends backed out because they had never really played before and they would never make it through a real tryout. I went by myself anyways because I really wanted to play. So I get to the tryouts and there are over 60 girls (the club only wanted a total of 18 girls from this tryout) so I was a little nervous. I ended up making the team of 18, then that 18 got split up into 2 teams of 9. I ended up on a team with a girl named Jess. We started talking and found out first of all that we both had boyfriends, second of all both of our boyfriends were sophomores at Allegheny College, and third of all that they were both on the football team together and even knew each other! So we became friends and carpooled up together on some weekends to see them! I think it was not so much coincidence that I made the team because I do have the skills and so in that case it was more luck that I had a good tryout and they chose me. To be put on the same sub-team as Jess was a 50-50 chance, and both of us having boyfriends was also a good chance. But for both of our boyfriends, out of all the guys in our area that we each know and could date, for both of them to be sophomores (because I am a freshman and Jess is a sophomore) and for both boyfriends to go to the same small school, and be on the same football team is very much due to coincidence! However, it didn't surprise me that they knew each other.

(K.B.) For next year, I was asked to live in a suite with 3 other girls. I already knew two of the three girls but I had never met the 3rd. She doesn't live on the same floor or building as us three. When I met her, she told me that she grew up in the same town as I did up until 2nd grade. Of all the people in Pitt to room with next year, it is a girl that grew up in the same area as me and went to the same school. I think that the occurrences were unlikely because there are at least 2,000 freshman girls that I could have possibly roomed with next year... also I could have roomed with a sophmore or junior girl. And out of all of those possible choices, I am rooming with one girl who I did not know and happened to grow up in the same town as me.

(J.G.) we were playing soccer at Georgetown University one weekend. So the team was going out to eat and we walked all around Wash D C looking for a place. When we finally found one, we were being seated and right next to us was the Duquesne soccer team. It was a total coincidence because our team or coaches did not even know they were there that weekend and also that out of all the restaurants in wash dc they would be at this one. This occurrence I feel is totally unlikely to ever happen again. It was very unprobable to even happen.

(L.M.) One coincidence that has occurred to me happened on the way back from my honeymoon. Our flight home was rerouted due to a summer storm in the area from our destination of Charlotte, North Carolina to St. Louis, Missouri. As we waited for another flight to take us back into North Carolina, we came across my new father-in-law at the adjoining gate. He had been flying from Atlanta, Georgia from one business meeting to New York City for another presentation but was rerouted to St. Louis as well. We were going to different airports and had no control over the layovers or the location, but who would have thought we would have bumped into each other at side by side gates so far from home.

(M.B.) It was the very beginning of the year, and we had a poster on the wall across from the elevators that had our names, majors and hometown listed. About the third day I was in the dorm, which was a Friday, I heard an exclamation from down the hall. "Look, someone from Rochester, NY". I peeked my head out from my door to see a guy standing there. As we introduced ourselves, we discovered that our parents attended the same church, West Side Baptist. What a small world and wonderful connection to home I had made. Adam and I remain friends and it is wonderful to have someone to talk about "garbage plates" and abbots, and have them understand what I mean. The likely hood of having people from Rochester coming to Pitt, is small, but not tiny. However, I know one person from my church that ever attended Pitt, and he had graduated several years ago. Which greatly decreased the likelihood of the story ever repeating itself.

(K.R.) When my mother was pregnant with me, she was placed into a hospital room with a women with the same last name (Smith, at that time). If that wasn't coincidence enough, these two women went into labor at the same time, her child and I were born within minutes of eachother (they had the same doctor and the doctor went through the one pregnancy then to the other woman). Both women had their child's name picked out ahead of time. My mother had named me, Keri Smith. The child next to her was named Kerry Smith. Luckily, we wouldn't get mixed up because he was an African American boy, and I was a white girl. Finally, both mothers were graphic designers who went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. -Same birthdays, same name, same hospital room, same doctor, same profession = Pretty coincidental. Though the last name, being its commonality, is not so coincidental.

(A.P.) At home i go to a church of around 300 people or so. I know most of the people pretty well or at least well enough to recognize them. This past summer i flew to LA out of Pittsburgh for a little vacation. As i was getting situated in my seat i looked up and to my surprise saw a member of our church and his wife looking for a seat fairly close to mine. How weird, i thought! The odds of someone i knew well, being at the same airport, at the same time, going to the same place, on the same flight,flying in the same class, a couple rows away from me is really very slim.

(J.R.) A coincidence that happened to my family occured a two summers ago. Our neighbors were moving, and we heard that the new people moving in were from Brooklyn, which is where my parents are from. So, after they moved in we invited them over for dinner. It was then that we realized how coincidental it was. Andy, our new neighbor, went to the same high school and college as my father (just two years behind), and my father had known his older brother Louie Ferrigno (the professional bodybuilder and the incredible hulk) who was one year older than my dad. Thinking back it still seems pretty coincidental that of all the places to move in the world that these two people would move next door to each other. On the other hand, Bethlehem is only 70 miles from Brooklyn (living expenses are cheaper in Bethlehem and it has great proximity to both NYC and Philadelphia) so maybe it isn't so coincidental that he moved next door.

(K.T.) In June of 2002 my parents and I traveled to Europe for two weeks and visited a number of countries. During our stay we traveled to Venice, Italy for two days. Our first morning in Venice, as we were walking out the door to go sight seeing, walking in to the Hotel was my long lost childhood next door neighbors! They had moved accross the country to Los Angeles when I was five years old and my family had not seen them nor heard from them in thirteen years. Needless to say we were all completely stunned but it was very nice to see them and catch up. This oc curence seems to be very unlikely.

(S.C.) When I was in high school I got a phone call from the hair dresser confirming my appointment for the next day. I thanked them and told them I would see them tomorrow. I didn't remember I had one...but who really remembers that stuff when you are in high school? While I was being shampooed another Susan Clough walks in and is ready to get her hair cut. Turns out there is a middle aged lady that lives in Lancaster,PA and gets her hair cut with the same lady that did mine. She had lived in Lancaster many years but had recently gotten a divorce and changed back to her maiden name. We had prescriptions and pictures confused after that too. We both managed to get our hair cut that day. I think it was a coincidence and the occurrence was very unlikely.

(M.H.)One time my dad and I had an argument and I was really angry at him. I was sitting at the dinner table in the dining room eating my dinner while he was in the kitchen talking to my mom. The dining room is connected to the kitchen and where my dad was standing was about 6 feet away from where I was sitting. I took a piece of rice and threw it at my dad thinking he wouldn't even notice. But as I threw it...he stopped talking and took out a piece of rice from his mouth. He was wondering where that came from. I was so in shock that it really landed in his mouth and I couldn't stop laughing. The coincidence of that happening was so unlikely.

(D.B.) 77 girls went through spring 2004 rush at the University of Pittsburgh. Of those 77, 6 girls accepted bids from Kappa Delta. All 6 of us happen to have boyfriends, and that seems like quite a coincidence!

(D.O.) i'm going to recount an event that occured to my family and myself when we were at myrtle beach. As a family we went shopping at a large strip mall. On the way back to the van, my father took out the keys, inserted them into the key hole and unlocked the doors to our windstar and we all climbed in to head back to our beach house. It was about twenty minutes down the road my brother looked in the back seat and saw suit cases and beach items that were not ours. It is one out of about 500,000 keys made by ford that are identical, and we just happened to have one that fit a different car that we were now piloting. So, we took the car back to the parking lot and got back into our REAL van and headed home. The colors of the vans were identical, as were the keys. The odds, being 1 oout of 500,000 just for keys, as well as identical colors make the incident extraordinarly coincidental.

(A.L.) Over the summer between 10 and 11th grade, I went on a family vacation to Outer Banks, N.C. While I was there I met a kid and we hung out almost the whole time I was there. We found out that we lived only 10 minutes away from each other back home. He was in a differnt district then me though, so we went to different high schools. After I got back from vacation we continued to call each other and hang out. We have now been dating for two years in March. The coincidence of this happening is very unlikely due to the location of the vacation, time, and home location.

(K.L.) In class you told us about an extra credit assignment we could do and email to you. My personal coincidence story happened a few years ago. My family had just joined a new church, and at the church, it was customary to have another family welcome you, and show you around. Our family where the Longs. They had a son who was my age. When we met for the first time I discovered his name was also Kim. I have never met a boy with my name before. As we got to talking, we discovered we also had the same birthday. Then that we had the same initials. It was really weird! Maybe not much of a coincidence, since it is pretty likely that we could have had the same birthday, but still pretty weird at the time. I think him having the same name and initials as me is not too likely though.

(E.H.) This past year, my family and I were leaving my Grandmothers house after spending Mothers Day with her. As we were walking up the driveway, we noticed that my boyfriend and his family were walking up the driveway opposite of my grandmother's. Apparently, our grandparents had lived across the street from eachother for years and (although we later found out that both of us spend the same major holidays at our grandparents' homes) we had never run into eachother before. I think it is very unlikely that the grandparents of a couple would live across the street from eachother without the couple realizing it.

(K.B.) One time me and my twin sister Amy went shopping with our parents at the mall. I went with my mom and Amy went with my dad. When we met to leave, we found out that amy and I had bought the exact same outfit from the exact same store (shirt and shorts.)

(S.D.) One of my coincidences was during a basketball game when I was in Junior High, me and another girl collided and i got a concusion. And it turned out that we were both only children and had the same birthday, August 16th.

(M.S.) My father is from Ireland and came to this country to be an electrical engineer with Westinghouse. He left Ireland with a bunch of men also working for the same company. During the trip, he had a conversation with a man who had grown up in county Dublin. My father being from Cork, they talked about soccer and school. After they landed, they said goodbye and did not communicate until my father found out that this man was marrying my mothers sister...He's now my uncle Patrick!

(M.H.) When I was in high school I only cut school once. It was a Friday of my senior year in the spring. I went to Oakland with two of my friends and was just wondering around. While there a friend of mine who went to Pitt saw me and started calling my name. He joined us and we went to have lunch. The place we went did not have only open tables for four people so I sat with my friend from Pitt and my other two friends sat together at a different table. I found out that my Pitt friend was having a really rough time and desperately needed a friend that day (all of his other friends had either deserted him or were the cause of his problems). The coincidences are that he needed me on the one day I skipped school, that I saw him at all in Oakland at all. Where he saw us was a place he never had any reason to be on a Friday at that time. Plus I now know that Pitt has so many students that seeing one particular person is fairly rare. The third coincidence was that there were no large tables open at the restaurant which allowed him to talk to just me when he needed me.

(K.D.) It starts out on a beautiful friday afternoon. I had just had lunch with my friends and are waiting at the bus station to catch the bus and go home. I always pick up 54C or 71A to go home but on this day i wasn't paying attention to the bus number while i was talking to my friend and got on the wrong bus. I got on as usual and went and sat between this lady and this guy who was standing up. He and I started talking and i learned that he was a law student and was going home for the afternoon just before i could tell him about myself the bus makes a turn and i say "oh no i think i got on the wrong bus." I get off the bus and just before i can we trade numbers and have been dating ever since. I guess every wrong and right thing that happens always occurs for a reason. Now that i think about my personal coincidence story i really don't think it's so unlikely to occur. After all i take the bus everyday a couple of times a day and as many buses that come along on fifth avenue it's very easy to get on the wrong bus.

(A.L.) My senior year of high school, it was a Friday night and the night of the biggest party of the year. It was at a friends house a few minutes away from my house. I knew I was taking a chance by going to the party because it was going to be out of control. I was getting ready to leave and I called my friend Jill to tell her I was on my way to pick her up then we would go to the party. I started my car and was on my way down my street when I heard a loud noise. I got out and found that I had a flat tire. I called Jill to tell her that we wouldnt be going to the party yet. About 20 minutes later my other friend called to tell me not to even come to the party because the police had just busted it and all 45 kids that were there got arrested and were cited for underage drinking. I'm thankful now for that flat tire or I would have an underage on my record

(M.F.) I have never met anyone my age who had the same name as me, or anything close to it, before this class. There is another Mackenzie and a Kenzie in this Stats class. We must be the only three in the whole school and its weird that we all signed up for the 12:00 Stats 0200 class. I think thats pretty unlikely.

(L.W.) One day my friend and I, were going home to Philadelphia. When we were waiting at the Greyhound Station, we noticed this girl in line with us, she also was heading to Philadelphia. Once we aboarded the bus the girl and I sat across from each other. As we both had taken our jackets off, I then noticed we had the same exact outfit on, jeans from Wet Seal, a tee shirt from Old Navy and underneath a black tank. I complemented her on her outfit as she complemented me one mine. I thought how weird was that!

(D.A.) I never personally had a coincidence, but my family has had many. One in particular is when my family and I lived back in Syria. In 1988, my first cousin was walking down the street in Homs when this kid on a bike accidentally runs my cousin over with his bike. My cousin fell on the cement floor and gashed the side of his face. The child ended up walking my cousin back to his house and told our family what had happened. Well following the accident my family and my cousins family ended up moving to the United States. Ten years later my family went to visit Syria during summer. My brother was riding a bike in the same street my cousin had got run over in ten years ago. When out of no were he sees this lady crossing the street, he couldn't control his bike so he ended up hitting the old lady with the bike. She fell to the ground and her medication fell all over the floor and she was crying. My brother helped her up and took her back to our house in Homs. My parents started talking to her and it turned out that she was the mother of the child that had hit my cousin with the bike ten years ago. This coincidence was very unlikely. Who could imagine that my brother would hit the mother of the child with his bike that had hit my cousin with his bike ten years ago. It was a surprise

(A.K.) This conicidence probably happened to a lot of people. One day over this past summer, I was sitting at home bored out of my mind. I decided to call my friend Jessice to see if she wanted to come over and swim. I picked up the phone to dial her number and she was on the other end. It was so weird. I know that this has happened to some of my other friends before, so I guess it is not that unlikely. She was bored too and she wanted to see what I was doing, but it still kind of freaked me out.

(K.P.) I traveled to India this winter break and when I flew out of Newark, NJ. When I got to the airport, I met a friend from PITT who was also going to India and was on the same flight as mine. Not only this, but when I took my seat on the plane, the person sitting next to me was a student from CMU who was also traveling to India. I think this was a big coincidence.

(L.M.) My twin brother, best friend and I had a crazy coincidence happen to us during our senior year in high school. Around the same time, my best friend and I complained of similar face pain on the right side of our face. It was a constant stinging feeling that was only felt on the right side of our tongue, face, and part of our ear. A couple days later, my twin bother also began to complain of these weird symptoms. I talked to my bio teacher about it, and she suggested that we may have this disease called Bells Palsy, a disease that can lead to the immobility of a side of your face. Since the symptoms got only worse, my mom and I decided to go to the emergency room. They told me that I did indeed have the disease and that it is not contagious and extremely rare. Thus, it was shocking to everyone that my best friend, my twin bother and myself had contracted the disease at the same time. I took steroids and the pain in my face eventually went away along with my bother. My best friend, however, was not so lucky and couldn't move the right side of her face for a month! However, we later decided that we all must have been exposed to some agent with the disease in order for us all to contract it at the same time.

(J.K.) My personal coincidence story is that my little brother was born on the same day as me. Before stat class I thought that this was a huge coincidence because what are the chances of 2 out of 4 siblings sharing the same birthday. However, now I know that the probibility of sharing the same birtday with someone else is actually fairly high.

(M.N.) One summer, I was traveling to Greece with my cousins. When we got to Amsterdam, we went to the desk to confirm our seats for our flight to Athens. There were 5 of us in all, but there were only 4 seats reserved! Naturally, we started to panic! We could not understand why 5 of us had ticekts, but only four of us had seats on the plane! It turns out that Delta Airlines had cancelled my cousin's seat because her name is also Maria Nychis. The had thought that there was a mix up and that someone put in the same name twice by accident! In the end, we showed them her ticket and the mix up was taken care of.

(D.S.) I was on the phone with a guy I was dating, and birthdays came up in the conversation. It turned out that we both had the same birthday and I always thought that was a weird coincidence, but after doing the birthday example in class, I realize that it really isn't so unlikely.

(M.M.) When I was a junior in high school my French club took a trip to New York City for a weekend. While I was there I ended up running into one of my mom's good friends. It was so odd seeing as we are both from the same town who just happened to be in New York City on the same weekend and managed to run into eachother in one of the nation's largest cities. I found this to be very unlikely.

(C.S.) In Nigeria, where both of my parents are from, the nickname "Chi-Chi" is far too common. This is because a lot of Nigerian names begin with Chi, for example: Chinyere, Chidiebere, and Chinedum. One time while at a reception, this woman was looking for her little daughter Chinyere. She kept yelling "Chi-Chi." Well I stood up because I assumed that since I didn't know her, she must be a friend of my mother and wants to tell me that my mom wanted me. But when I stood up, the girl and her playmate runt to the lady. I sat down so fast because I wanted to avoid public embarassment.

(M.P.) My coincidence just happened last Thursday on my way to my hair appt. The drive is an hour, Midland,PA. As soon as I was parallel to a specific body of water my favorite song came on. Later that night when I was on my way home as soon as I got to that same body of water but facing the opposite direction the same song came on the radio again.

(A.P.) Here is my extra credit for Stats. I hope it's not too late. I had it done for class today but forgot we had to e-mail it. One day in high school, I wore a new outfit. On that same day my friend had also worn the same outfit as me. It turned out that we had both bought our new outfits while on Christmas vacation with our families. This occurrence is very likely because my friend and I have the same taste in clothes and tend to shop n the same stores. Truth be told, this kind of ocurrence happens to many people, especilly with the presence stores like the Gap and Old Navy.

(M.R.) This is my extra credit assignment for today. I had it ready for class but I forgot that we were supposed to email it to you this time. I hope it is not too late, and even if it is it's still an interesting coincidence story. A few weeks ago a friend of mine who goes to UPJ called me to tell me about a friend of hers who has been dating his girlfriend since their freshman year of highschool. The reason this was significant is that my boyfriend and I have also been dating since our freshman year of highschool. This may not be too coincidental without the list piece of information: Their names are Jake and Melissa and my boyfriend's name is also Jake. 2 couples, same names, both at Pitt campuses, who have been dating for the same amount of time. Big coincidence. All of these things happening together like this is very unlikely...and kinda spooky too.

(K.C.)I have been friends with one of my neighbors since kindergarten. We had some similar classes in high school and it would always surprise us to find that once in awhile we would wear the same shirt on the same day, or the same color pants and shirt on the same day. This occurrence was probably not so unlikely, considering that in high school everyone pretty much shopped at the same stores, so the chances of us buying the same clothes were pretty high.

(S.K.) When I used to play softball there were around 15 girls on the team. It turned out that I and another girl on the team had the same birthday and she lived a street away from me. I never knew the odds were that great.

(A.M.) Freshman year I met a girl named Jill. We always thought it was funny that we met so randomly since we had so much in common. On my first visit to her dorm room we discovered that we owned the exact same bed spread, hair flat iron, television set and perfume. As time went by, we learned that a friend of her's from home (New Jersey) actually lived with my boyfriend- this was becoming increasingly strange. We often wondered if we hadn't already met, whether or not we would have due to these factors. We became very close freshman year and often talked about our past experiences. One day when discussing first loves, the coincidence factor came crashing down on us and we were faced with a very strange and almost ironic reality- her Brandon Dailey and my Brandon Bailey. The similarities between my friend and I have nothing short of a miracle. In the four years that I have known her I have truly let my guard down for the first time in my life. I never had a girl sibling but due to thesxe coincidences I have gained a sister. Most of the thigns that we shared are not that hard to imagine. Our material belongings were mass produced, consumer items. However, all of these thngs in combinations with the oh-so-similar (one letter difference) first love is a little unbelieveable. Granted Brandon and D/Bailey are not really uncommon names, but all together is a little strange, right?

(K.W.) Last year, my husband and I decided to stay the weekend at a bed and breakfast in Ontario. When we arrived, we were told that we had to share a bathroom with the other couple who were staying beside us. The next day, when i went to use the restroom, as I opened the door, my mom comes strolling out of the bathroom. We were both shocked. IT turns out that her and my step dad were planning a little vacation the same time that we were. I told her earlier that it was a good idea to find a place to stay online, because it was cheaper, which is how we both found our bed and breakfast, coincidentally.

(E.B.) When my great-grandfather died, the priest told my great-grandma that she had a "good ten years of life left." Exactly ten years later, on her way to a religious service commemorating the 10-year anniversary of my great-grandfather's death, my great-grandma died. The possibility of this event happening is very rare. However, my great-grandmother's death had to occur on one of 365 days available each year. Of these possible dates, the death would only occur within a certain range of years. This is due to the fact that both my great-grandparents were similar in age and shared a similar life expectancy.

(W.S.) Last summer I had just turned 18 years old. It was near father's day, so my brother and I decided to take my dad out to the horse race track as a way to celebrate. We had a nice afternoon of eating lunch and watching the races. I had never been to a racetrack before, and my brother and dad told me there was no sheer way to pick a winner. My dad explained that the purpose of a racetrack was to socialize and have fun, and blow some money while you are at it. Knowing this, I did not want to bet as it would be a total waste of money (theoretically). As the day went on, I noticed that horses that were not brown were winning more races than the brown horses. So I decided I'd cough up some money and just place one bet, to see what may happen. I decided to place a bet where you would have to pick the top three horses of the race. So, I bet on three black horses to take first, second, and third. The bet was fairly cheap (5 dollars), but the payout if you bet correctly was large (200 dollars). I said why not and I placed my bet. Well wouldn't you know that during the next race, the three black horses won the race, and I was the winner of 200 dollars. I ended up paying for dinner that night, which I guess was fair, but I really thought about how unlikely it was that I picked three of the slower horses that just happened to be black. Who would have known.

(I.K.) A coincidence to me could be my best friend and myself have the exact same birthday went to the same high school and lived in the same neighborhood and we never met till freshman year high school. Also 2 other senior girls that attended my high school had the same birthday, 4 out of 564.

(C.A.) During the spring of my senior year of high school, I was finally forced to have my wisdom teeth removed. Even, though I had known various classmates that had gone through the same experience, I was a bit nervous about the surgery. Luckly, I found that one of my good friends was also having his teeth removed on the same day as me, and even at the same hospital! At the time I figured that this could only have been a one in a million occurance, but know it seems as though the chances were not as unlikely as I though.

(L.D.) When I first arrived at Pitt, I was so nervous. I knew that Upitt is mostly Pennsylvania students, and being from New Jersey, I was nervous that I would be surrounded by Pennsylvania kids. Not that it's a bad thing, but I was pessimistic that I'd find someone who came from good ole New Jersey. None of my friends form home decided to come to Pitt, and I didn't know anyone els ein New Jersey that was attending either. It ends up that there are 5 other girls on my floor that are from New Jersey. One of my floormates lives about 20 minutes from me! Another one of floormates lives about 30 minutes away! We thought it was coincidence that "Jersey Girls" ended up at the same school, let alone the same dorm, on the same floor! Yet it asn't entirely coincidnece. Upitt is taking more out of state students each year, New Jersey isa high populate state, thus it is unlikely that no one from New Jersey decided to come to Upitt. Since New Jersey is a neighbor state of Pennsylvania, it is more likely that if there were out of state students, they would be from neigbring states rather than from across the nation. also, since New Jersey isn't thatbig of a state, and everything is a "half hour away", it wasn't entirely surprising that those of us who come from new jersey live relatively close to each other. Regardless, we formed a bond because we were the few, proud, and aweasome New Jersey Girls (maybe we're a little biased)!

(J.T.) One time when I was in tenth grade my friend and I had bought the same outfit. We often would buy the same clothes , but in different colors so we would match. This one particular time we had came to school in exactly the same outfit, not knowing that the other had bought it. It was truly a coincidence, but everyone else thought it was planned like usual. This occurrence wasn't so unlikely because we had the same taste in clothes and usually liked what the other picked out.

(N.N.) I was getting on a plane in Los Angeles where I am from and ended up sitting next to a guy with whom I had a conversation with all the way from Lax to Phoenix. He was from Detroit and had been in Los Angeles for business. We had exchanged contacts, he was getting off the plane, and I was going to stay on to continue in to Pittsburgh. I looked in his seat and noticed that he had left his boarding pass. As I looked at his name I noticed that he had the same last name as me. After further investigating the situation through conversations we found out that we were cousins that had never met.

(A.S.) One Friday night last semester I went to a house party and meet a really attractive guy that I ended up having a lot in common with. We talked all night and exchanged numbers. We were planning on hanging out that Sunday night to watch a movie. The next night I didn't feel well so I decided to stay in while my rommate and friends went to a party. When she got home later that night she told me about a really great guy that she had met and spent the whole night getting to know. So we were both happy that we had finally met decent guys. She told me that she invited him over on Sunday to watch a movie, but not to worry because he had plans and was coming over on Monday night instead. So Sunday night rolls around and my guy comes over to watch a movie. He looked shocked when I showed him a picture of me and my roomie and seemed to become incredibily nervous. We started the movie anyways, but halfway through my roomate came home and was startled to see her guy watching a movie with ME! It turns out that we both went to the same party (at his house) and both fell for him. Needless to say, neither of us talked to him after that. I feel like this was an unlikely occurence considering how many guys attend this University.

(S.W.) My mom and dad were on vacation were on vacation in the Bahamas. On the last night of their vacation they went to a restaurant on the beach. They forgot to make reservations for dinner; consequently, they had to wait twenty minutes for a table to become available. They decided to go to the bar to pass the time while the next table was ready. After the twenty minutes passed, their names were called over the loud speaker. They went to the hostess to be seated when another couple approached them. The other couple had the same last name as my parents (Williams). Williams is a very popular last name, but the real coincidence was the fact that the married couple had the same first names as my parents( Diane and Darrell). Weird!!

(S.F.) I graduated from a very small high school. Most of my graduated class ended up in Washington, DC, New York or Boston. On my way home from school for Thanksgiving I got on the plane to find a friend of mine from high school. It was really great to see her because she goes to school in South Carolina. I thought it was quite the coincidence that we were on the same plane. On the way back I got on the plane to find another one of my friends from high school on the plane. She was going back to school from being home as well. The odds of being on the plane both to and from home with someone I went to high school with was slim to none in my mind. Out of 75 kids in my graduating class, it was nearly impossible to see one...it was quite the coincidence.

(J.S.) upon my birth my mom contracted leukemia. I was tested and the results showed that i was not a carrier of the disease and had no connection what so ever to the disease. So, i guess you can say it was a coincidence that when i came out my mom spontaneously contracted leukemia.

(R.C.) An experience in my life where I encountered coincidence was when I lived in my old neighborhood in Meridian, just outside of Butler, PA. My father's name is Michael Cavanaugh and his sister's maiden name is Maureen Cavanaugh. After living in Meridian for a few years, a new couple moved to Meridian and joined our church. The woman's name was Maureen Cavanaugh and she was married to another Mike Cavanaugh. However, this couple was not at all related to our family and we had never met them before. We would get phone calls all the time when someone was looking for the "other" Mike Cavanaugh in Meridian. Many times people would see the two Mike Cavanaugh's in the phone book and assume that because we lived on Meridian Road that we were the only Mike Cavanaughs of Meridian. We also ran into similar issues at church because Maureen Cavanaugh was involved with many of the women's organizational functions. So people were always asking about our relation to the other family even though there was none.

(L.N.) A coincidence happened to me a couple of months ago, when I met this woman with the same first and middle name as me, Lara Elizabeth. This is really strange because hardly anyone spells their name like mine. Most people spell it Laura, and also not many people have the middle name Elizabeth. Most girl's have names like Marie, Ann, or Lee. She not only had both names, but she also was very short and had brown hair like me. I believe the chances of finding someone that is similar in those way is prettty unlikely. There are so many names and for her to have both and to look like me too is weird.

(A.S.) when I came here to Pittsburgh, I had to pass the tofl test in 3 month, the left of the year that I had for english studying according to the high education ministry of kuwait. I was waiting for my score, and this was my last chance. I went to the international office to check the addmisiom when they said are you Asma Saleh, I said yes and then Conie who works there said am sorry to tell you that you failed but you can still try again, she did not know that I had limited time. but anyway, I went home upset thinking of moving to a new state but after 3 days and while I was trying to check for london universities, I got a mail from Pitt university for congratulation and welcoming. I got confused but I wondered if Connie was wrong. I called the international office for checking again and I gave them my DO number this time, I was truly accepted to the University. When I went to DC ,where the embassy of kuwait is located, to meet my advisor, I met one of my elementry school friends, she was the one who failed the toefl test and she has the same first and last name as mine. this is common in kuwait, middle name which is the father name is very important in kuwait but not in the U.S. I had not seen this person since long lime and I was surprice to meet her in this situation but what is good is that I got accepted and she still had enough time for the toefl. Conie did not ask me about my DO number because when I arrived there, Conie though that I ( my friend ) came to recheck a gain since her brother already asked about her admission. I too have a brother here in pittsburgh!

(D.M.) I hurried to my night class in the pouring rain of my freshman year at college \ and was getting ready to take a test that I did not have time to study for. I \ was praying for some type of miracle for my teacher to get caught in traffic or\ something and would be late to give out our exams. To my surprise, the teache\ r was caught in a bad traffic jam from an accident and could not submit the tes\ t out to the class. Luckily, I did not have to take the test and fail from my \ lack of studying but I had another chance to study for it. That night really f\ elt like a coincidence to me. However, the occurrences that happened that night were really not a coincidence\ when one really thinks about it. My teacher lived in area where there was alw\ ays a lot of traffic because his house was on the side of a main road. With al\ l of that busy traffic and horrible weather, it is likely for an accident to oc\ cur. It just so happened, that my teacher was caught up in it.

(L.N.) Three summers ago my girlfriend and I took a vacation to Hawaii. Unfortunately we had those awful aisle seats, that sit 5 across. My name is Leon and my girlfriend's name is Heather. Fine, all well and dandy. Next to us sat a married couple and their son. While I tried to sleep, my girlfriend being the socialite that she is started to converse with the lady next to her. Turns out her name was Heather as well. And yes her husband's name was Leon. Sure I realize Heather is a common name, but Leon... Not too many of them running around. But the kicker was the son. Being of Greek descent, tradition says my first born son is supposed to have my father's name, George. Now I don't like the name George and I probably won't do it. Screw tradition. But next to us was Heather & Leon & what do you think junior's name was. Yep you guessed it. George.

(J.F.) I was in a soccer tournament in 8th grade. It was really important to me that we won because it was far away from home. We made it to the championship game, luckily, because three players were injured on my team. It was a tie at the end, resulting in a shootout. A shootout is where 5 players from each team are chosen to take on the goalie one on one. Of course, I had to be the last one to take on the goalie. Three girls on my team had scored, and three girls on the other team had scored. So I had a 50/50 chance of winning this for our team. Coincidentally, it started raining halfway though the shootout, making field conditions terrible. I made the goal to win. The only unlikely occurence was the rain. My chances were lessened because of this.


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