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...
(M.S.) My coincidence is i use to work in a restaurant with a girl with my same first and middle name; also were the same age and had born the same month.
(A.F.) One day a few weeks ago I received a phone call asking for Amanda M. Fisher. I said that I was Amanda and the caller then informed me that I had an outstanding bill for 300$ on my JCPenney's credit card. I told the caller that I don't have a JCPenney's credit card, but he insisted that I did. He then asked, are you Amanda M. Fisher born on January 23, 1984. I said that is my name and birthdate but i do not owe 300$ to a card I don't have. After a few minutes he asked if my address was something that was not my address, and then if my social security number was something that was not my social security number. It was then discovered that he was looking for a different Amanda M. Fisher who was born on January 23, 1984. So luckily i didn't have to pay the 300$ bill.
(E.G.) My father, along with his two younger sisters were adopted through the Catholic Church in Hamilton, Ontario. Because they were so young when my grandparents got them, they were able to name the children themselves: Edward, Patricia, and Kathrine. Five years ago my Aunt Patricia began trying to find her birth-parents. When she finally contacted her real mother she found out that she lived in British Columbia and that she had 3 younger sisters and a younger brother. The coincidence is however, that her birth-mother also named her other oldest daughter Patricia, unknowing that it was the same name that was given to her first-born daughter by her adopted mother.
(K.S.)The coincidence I had was something similar to yours with the name mix up. See this was the problem: One day out of no where I was in Towers lobby and one of my friends came up to me and said "What is worng with you? Why don't you go to our Africana Studies class? You are so far behind, cause you missed like two weeks." I tried to explain to this person that I did not have an Africana Studies class so he must be going crazy. The boy replied with a"nope" and said "The first day they called a Krystal Smith from the roll and you were not there." I tried to think long and hard on me having a class and not knowing about it but I would think that would be kind of obscene. I am a sophomore so I know if I had a class or signed up for a class it would be on my schedule which there was no presence of an Africana Studies class there. I had this on my mind for about a week. So, one morning I went to the cleaners to pick up my clothes and a light skinned girl a little shorter than me asked my name. I replied with "Krystal Smith" and the girl said," Oh, you are the girl with my name", I then asked her did she go to Pitt and she said yeah so I asked her did she have Africana Studies and she said yeah and I was like "Ok, just tell my friend Mike that you have the same name as me" and she was like Ok. I thought that was so wierd because her name was Krystal Smith just like mine but the difference was that she spelled her name with a C so hers was Crystal Smith. This story is so weird that I would want others to read it so you can post this also.
(M.C.) A coincidence that I have had is one day I was developing pictures and I went to pick up my pictures. When it was my turn I told them my name they handed me the pictures, paied for them, and went on with my shopping as I was looking at the pictures. As I looked at them, I realized that they were not my pictures but someone eles's with my name, Mary Carr. I went back to the picture center and told them the situation and asked for my pictures which they handed to me, this time correctly.
(C.M.) There is one instance that sticks out in my mind as being a really weird coincidence. A couple of my friends and I took a weekend trip up to Canada (Niagara Falls) this past August. The first night we were there, we went to some clubs. While at one of the clubs, I noticed a girl that had been in my poetry class at Pitt! A few minutes later, I ran into a group of guys that I knew from near home. THEN, just minutes later, I ran into another guy that I knew and hadn't seen in about three years! So, I saw three different groups of people, within minutes of each other, that I knew personally- all at the same club in Canada. What a coincidence!
(N.P.) Two years ago my family and I were sitting eating breakfast one Sunday morning when the phone rang. My mom answered the call from a friend of the family who was in hysterics and kept telling my mom how sorry she was about the loss of my dad. My confused mother explained that my dad was just fine and as matter of fact he was in the room eating breakfast as they spoke. After that disturbing phone call my dad immediately opened the newspaper to the obituaries. To his surprise he read an obituary of one Robert Petrini. How could this be? My dad is the only Robert Petrini that we know of. It turns out that there was another Robert Petrini of the same age and family of six (there are also six in my family) who lived in a small neighboring town. Eventually, due to a number of calls from concerned friends, my dad was forced to call the newspaper to have them clarify that the Robert Petrini of Ridgefield is not the Robert Petrini of Bethel.
(L.M.) My Coincidence: From my highschool in Erie PA, only 6 students came to the University of Pittsburgh. As a freshman, I signed up to get a random room mate. I ended up being randomly paired with one of the 6 people that went to my highschool.
(A.R.) I decided to attend the Florida Dance Festival in Miami this past summer for two weeks. The very first day I was in Miami, I got into a car accident...in my brother's car. The car was towed and I couldn't get it back until the owner, my brother, picked it up. My brother was in New York City for the summer so I was in a little trouble. I decided to take the bus to the festival the next day, which was Monday, the first day of the festival. I didn't know anyone, but befriended a dance teacher who lived in Miami her entire life and taught dance classes. It was the only day she could attend the festival because she taught the other days of the week. After talking for a few moments, I told her about the accident. Smiling, she told me her husband owned the place that had towed my brother's car!! I got the car back that very evening...but was still in shock at how lucky I was....
(D.D.) My coincidence story comes from when I went on Semester at Sea. I was with some friends in Austraila and we had met a group a people at a little restuarant on an island we were staying at to go snorkeling. We chatted with them for awhile and one of my friends, Katie, told a man we had jsut me that she liked his shirt (which was a jersey of some sort). He was from an African country and it is custom there to give things to someone who compliments you on them. So he took off his shirt and gave it to her but asked that he could have her shirt (an Old Navy T-shirt) so he would have something to wear. They exchanged shirts and we left never to see each other again. Two weeks later our ship docked in Fiji and we again went snorkeling. While out on the boat another small boat pulled up next to us and one of the men on the boat was the guy who had exchanged shirts, AND he was wearing the Old Navy T-shirt that day. We said hello and everyone had a good laugh.
(M.R.) This past spring, my roommate and I studied abroad (we did Semester at Sea). Because we wanted to meet new people right off the bat, we did not request to be roommates on the ship and instead allowed ourselves to be entered into the random roommate drawing system. We would not find out who we were to be living with until we boarded the ship in the Bahamas. You can imagine our surprise when, out of 400 other possible roommates, we were randomly put together. It's kind of an uneventful story, but this is the most coincidental thing that has happened to me recently, that I can remember.
(M.H.) i used to work at a summer camp in the poconos. the summer before my freshmen year of high school a really cool lady named regina from canada came to be the camp nurse. this camp was affiliated with camp america so we had employees from all over the globe. a couple years later i was in new york city with my family (i live in delaware) over the christmas holiday which was a new thing for us. as we were walking through time square i heard the ringing of a salavation army bell and i just happened to look that way. the person who was ringing the bell was regina. we were both miles away from our seperate homes and we just happened to be in the same place at the same time years later after our friendship began. it was weird...
(N.H.) My issue of coincidence would be from class on Wed. When asked the class if we had two of the same birthdays. I was one of those people with 2 of the same birthdays. Not only that I was the third person you asked and the girl befor me had that birthday, Jan. 4th.
(L.D.) My most recent coincidence is kind of a dumb story...but my roommate and I were both on instant messanger and we were about to put away messages up. She told me to look at hers because she said it was funny, and I said I would as soon as I was done writing my mine. We had written the EXACT same thing without anything occuring to provoke our doing so, such as a saying, or doing something funny...it was completely random.
(J.T.) When i was a little girl, my family took a cruise to the Bahamas. While on board the ship we met a young woman who was also from Pennsylvania and on vacation with her family. Our families became good friends and she was telling us how she would start her first teaching job in the fall. Little did I know that when I started first grade, I would already have a friend in the class. The woman turned out to be Mrs. Zeek, my first grade teacher.
(P.D.) My "coincidence story" happened when I was 10. I was actually bitten by two poisonous snakes that year, but luckily, both of them had very impotent venom because they were so old and dying. What are the chances that I would get bitten by two poisonous snakes and not be harmed at all either time? Both occurrances happened in the Sugarloaf Mountains in Maryland. I guess I am just extremely lucky.
(S.N.) When I was in pre school I was friends with a kid named Spencer. Our parents were friends. We lived in seperate towns and we didn't see each other over the years. Anwyays, when I was visiting PITT our parents recognized each other and they thought the coincidence was pretty unlikely. They didn't sound like he was going to attend Pitt though. Over parents weekend we saw them again as we were walking along Forbes. The chances that we both would visit Pitt on the same day, then both attend the same school, and happen to be walking along Forbes at the same time on parents weekend seem pretty unlikely.
(C.K.) I know that you wanted theese yesterday. I completely forgot about the assignment, but if your still interested here is my coincidence. My freshman year at PITT my roommates name was purity. As I proudly walked to the door of my domitory in large letters you saw Chastity on one side and Purity on the other. People taped condems to our door, and called us the Catholic twins and etc. Some say this incidence was a coincidence, but I think who ever arranges the room assignment was trying to be funny. Recently, I learned at my church that 2 other members share my birthday. All of are birthdays are exactly ten years apaprt.For example my birthday is on 9/02/76, member two 9/02/66, member three 9/02/56. If theese are still useful you are more than welcome to post them, and if they are not happy reading.
(J.E.) Almost four years ago I met my husband, who I have been married to since May of this year, via the internet. At the time I was going to Indiana University of PA and he was going to Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. I had grown up in Kittanning, PA, about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh, and he had grown up in Bangor, PA, about 3 miles from the New Jersey border...so we lived about 6 hours away from each other, on opposite sides of the state. Well, we started talking online and we were talking about where we were from. He told me he was from Bangor, PA, a very tiny town. It just so happened that one of my roommates, Liza, was also from Bangor, PA. I asked him if he knew her. Turns out that he had dated her best friend all throughout high school and he and one of my roommates hung out everyday after school, gave each other rides to and from school, and were very good friends. I guess I always thought it was an incredibly weird coincidence, but I'm sure other people have weirder experiences. So while it's odd that I met my husband on the internet, is it odder that he dated my ex-roommate's best friend and that we met while I was living with her and on opposite sides of the state?
(C.K.) I was down at the beach with my family for vacation. My friends and I were doing a little shopping and ran right into an aquaintence from our highschool. It was a coincidence that we ran into her in the same shop at the same beach.
(S.L.) On September 2 of this year, I had to go up to the ninth floor of the William Pitt Union to the Jumpstart offices. I am a second year Jumpstart corps member so I had to go to the offices to fill out all the paperwork necessary for me to work for them again this year. They gave me several available days and times that I could come up and I chose September 2 at 4:00. I went to the Union and got on an elevator to go up to the ninth floor. There were four other people on the elevator: a friend/co-worker, who had (unknown to me) also chosen that day and time to renew her employment, and two women and a man I did not know. As I stepped on, the man commented on the shirt I was wearing. My shirt said on the front "Hi, I'm a Scorpio" and he asked me if Scorpio is really my sign. I said yes and he replied that he is also a Scorpio and then asked when my birthday is. I told him November 4th. He said "You're not going to believe me but that's my birthday too!" He then got out his driver's license to show me. His birthday was, in fact, November 4, the same as mine. Not only that, but it was the same year, 1984, as well. We were born on the same day! He is the first person I have ever met that has the same birthday as me.
(K.T.) In my AP Spanish course my senior year in high school, in a class of tops 25 students, there were 4 Kristins including myself, and one other girl spelt her name with an i, and the two others used e's.
(R.B.) I had a cat for 12 years and then we had to put him to sleep. I went to visit my aunt for the summer and she took me to get another cat. What's funny about it is that when we got there he looked identical to my old one and even more surpising was that he was born on the day my cat died.
(L.K.) When I moved into my dorm freshman year, I was walking around meeting everyone on my floor and I went into the one room to meet this girl named Lizzie, and I was looking at the pictures on the wall, and I saw a picture of two of my best friends from high school. I pointed it out and said, "That's Matt and Erin!" And Lizzie said, "Yeah, they're two of my best friends." And we pieced it together and found out that I was the Lisa that they had always talked about, and she was the Lizzie that they had always talked about, but we had never met before. It just so happened that we ended up living two rooms down from each other.
(V.S.) Three summers ago, my family took a vacation to Virginia Beach and I was allowed to take my best friend Stephanie. When we got there we got all ready to go out and went to the boardwalk. It was getting late so we went into a store on our way back to our condo. While we were looking around I said to steph that I had a feeling I knew someone that was in the store with us. She told me I was crazy since we were so far from home and we didn't know anyone else that was coming here. I still had that feeling and I said it again. Sure enough I turned around and there were two of my closest guy friends from a neighboring high school to where steph and I went. We were so excited and we stayed with those boys the whole trip. Needless to say, when I have a feeling she totally goes with it. Another occurance was this year in my social foundations of education class. We are one big class of 30 people but weekly we break up and have smaller sections, we are divided by last name. In my section is S-Z. We had to introduce ourselves and there was another Valerie. That is really rare for me because I never hear my name and she has the same last inital and same middle initial. Well on a blackboard discussion for that class we had to tell more about ourselves. So, not only do we have the same initials but we also have the same birthday. That never happens to me!
(K.T.) A couple of years ago my while my boyfriend and I were travelling in Europe we met another American on a train from Paris to Madrid. We hung out with him on the train and in the morning said goodbye as we went our separate ways. A couple of weeks later we were in Florence, Italy when we ran into the same guy on the street. A couple of weeks after that we were on the subway in London, going to the Airport when we met the same traveller yet again. As it turned out, he was also going to the airport and ended up being on the same flight as us.
(K.M.) I was attending a college open house two years ago with my father. We were walking around picking up brochures and then we bumped into a husband and wife and started talking about the stresses of picking a school. As we talked we noticed each others' name tages. Our last name is Myers and the man said, ``Hey tha's funny my wife's maiden name was Myers." My dad then looked at his name tag ``Evans" and said, ``Well guess what, my wife's maiden name was Evans." His wife's maiden name was our last name and Dad's wife's maiden name was their last name. :)
(K.S.) My father's favorite song when I was little was "Tuesday Afternoon" by the Moody Blues. I can always remember hearing it in the car and him singing along. HE LOVED THIS SONG. Anyway, he was killed in a car accident when i was 5, on Tuesday afternoon. The cops told my mom that when they got to the car, "Tuesday Afternoon" was playing loudly from his car when technically, the radio shouldn't have even worked.
(M.W.) I am a fraternal twin, and was born in the Beverly Hills Cedar Cinai hospital room number 204 on November 4, 1983. Five years ago, when I was visiting my family in California, I happened to be shopping in Barneys when I overheard a girl arguing with a sales receptionist over their refund policy. I had been in that situation before and had benefitted from talking to a particular manager, so I informed the girl of who to contact, which she was very grateful for. We got to talking, and as it turned out, she was not only born in the room next to my room, but she was also a twin! Her and her sister were born around 15 - 20 minuets before my sister and I were born, and they were separated by almost the same amount of time in between.
(J.L.) My boyfriend, Mike, was in your STAT 0200 class two or three years ago. I remember him telling me one day that you brought up the probability of two people sharing the same birthday out of a group of fifty, and to test the results, you began asking students when their birthdays were. Mike was the third person called on, and he ended up having the same birthday (January 4th) as the first person you called on. Mike thought that the whole probablity thing was pretty neat, espcially because it was his birthday that was shared. I was actually thinking about this during class on Wendesday, as you talked about finding the probability of two people in fifty having the same birthday. Interestingly enough, when you started calling on kids in class to verify the probability, within the first three or four responses, you got a match-- January 4th. It seemed like a pretty strange coincidence that in my boyfriend's stastics class the match was January 4th, and that was the same match in my class, too. (Adding to the weirdness, the second match in our class was January 30th, which is my boyfriend's brother's birthday.)
(D.T.) My roomate Eric is a TA in a chemistry class. Last night one of his students contacted him and asked him if he could help her study. He really didnt want to leave our apartment so he told her to just come over and he would help her. I was home too and working on some homework at the table they were working at too. Durng a study break our conversation turned to the the topics of birthdays. Coincidentally, this girl and I share the same birthday.
(R.L.) Two weeks ago I was in the dorm room of a friend i met this year at pitt. The dorm room phone rang and the person on the other end seemed to have called the wrong number, but he knew exactly what room he called and was sure this was the person's number. My friend asked if anyone knew the person the caller was asking for, and much to my suprise he was an old friend from highschool. I got on the phone and asked who the caller was and it happened to be someone who went to my highschool that i knew. I guess the room I was in belonged to the person that the caller asked for last year.
(D.T.) A personal coincidence experience happened with work. I have been with a company for about 3 years as a contracted employee. Not full-time, no benefits, but flexibility in work schedule and the advantages of some traveling. At the time of accepting the position it was what I was looking for. Then I stated hearing rumors of financial difficulties and closing of some areas of the business and the letting go of some high executives including a friend who thought of me when this position came available. So the uncertainty of having a job and changing outside circumstances started me thinking about a job move. Before I had a chance to do anything, just in the thinking stage, I received a phone call from a friend about a full-time position with benefits and job security, a major contract had been completed for work to last at least as long as the contract, 35 years. He was wondering if I would be interested in the position, a coincidence.
(S.C.) It was a typical Friday afternoon for me here in Pittsburgh, PA. I had just picked up my paycheck from my place of employment, (Direct Advantage Marketing), and was going to deposit the check into my account at PNC Bank. I intended to make this deposit a cash deposit so that the money would be available for my usage that day via my debit card. I arrived at the bank, filled out my deposit form, and waited in line until I reached its front and the available teller called me to her booth. The transaction was then made; I handed the teller my check and deposit form, specified that I wanted the deposit to be a cash deposit, and waited for my receipt. The receipt was handed to me and I was on my way to my next stop, which was the Giant Eagle grocery store on the Southside near my home. I did my shopping and went through the checkout line. As I stated above, I planned on using my debit card money as a means to pay for my items. As I swiped my card through the self swiper, the transaction came up as "denied," which is something that usually happens when there are not enough funds in that particular account. I tried swiping my card over and over again and every time it was denied. Confused, I finally decided to call the bank in hopes of finding out what was going on. After being on the phone with the teller for a few minutes, which coincidentally happened to be the same teller that waited on me, we found that my check had been deposited into the wrong account. Apparently, there is another person named "Sarah Cole" holding a checking account with PNC bank. The teller, when depositing the check, had just looked up my name on the computer instead of using my account number as verification. It seems strange to me that when it showed there were two Sarah Cole's in the system, she might think to ask me which one I was. Haha, maybe it didn't show up that way or something, or she could have just made a mistake. At any rate, everything worked out. The teller redistributed the money to my account and because the mistake was caught so early no money was lost.
(P.I.) A friend of mine had a crush on this guy during second semester freshman year. She eventually figured that they would never be together and called it quits. Last month another friend of mine began talking to this guy name John and one day he invited all of us over his house so that we could eat pizza and watch a movie. When we got there he told us that one of his roommates used to have a crush on her, my friend who was now talking to him. Of course my friend wanted to know who this guy was and it turned out to be the guy that my other friend had a crush on during second semester freshman year.
(W.A.) The best coincidence that has happened to me yyet happened just yesterday. My friend and I went to the Carnegie Art Museum for her Freshman Studies class. We walked around for a while and were in the modern section when we recognized a girl who graduated a year before us. We hadn't seen her in at least two years and we went up to her. It turns out she goes to WVU and was at the museum for her humanities course. It is so odd because we are all from Lancaster, PA, so to finally see eachother in Pittsburgh is very coincidental.
(K.W.) When I was in 5th grade I took a trip to Hawaii with my family. While in Hawaii, we traveled from island to island on extremely small airplanes. On one of the flights from Honolulu to Maui, I saw a girl from my grade. Not only was that weird but her name was Kim. Seeing that my name is Kim, the whole thing was just very odd.
(B.G.)Several weeks ago my wife and I went out to eat with one of our married couples. For some reason at that meeting my wife and I both took note to what we were wearing and what our friends were wearing. This past Thursday my wife and I were invited over to the same couples house for dinner. When we arrived we sat down to the table and we both realized that we had worn the same outfits. The coincidence was that not only were we wearing the same thing but so were our friends. We all had the exact same outfits on from several weeks ago. We thought it was rather amusing that four people meeting in the same place on two occasions could all have the same clothes on both times.
(J.C.) so this one time i was coming out of church, and i was about to get into my car, ( I drove a white beetle at the time) when all of a sudden my key wont seem to turn. I start FREAKING out, i called my mom and my friends to ask what to do. I had no idea why i couldnt get into my car. It never occured to me that this particular car wasnt my own. After freaking out for about 20 minutes i look inside and see that there is a laundry baskey in the backseat. I think to myself hmmm this is sorta funny, i dont remember having a laundry basket in my backseat before i left...it finally dawns on me that this isnt my car. I just assumed that it was bc there were not alot of white beetles around my town. I look over to my left and i see that my car is two away from the car i thought was mine. After feeling stupid i drove myself home and told my mom the story. I had never seen her laugh so hard. She started crying she was laughing so hard. And that is my coincidence story, the coincidence of two exact cars being parked two away and one owner thinking the other was his or hers.
(J.D.) A few months ago, I was on the bus coming from downtown. The bus stopped at the corner of 5th Ave. & Bigelow Blvd. near the Cathedral of Learning. As the bus stopped, I just sat and stared out the window. At that moment, something peculiar caught my eye. There was a tow truck speeding through the intersection towing a car that looked oddly familiar. The car I own is small, rare, and Australian made. Since I bought it, I have only ever seen two others like it. I became very curious and very anxious as I watched what I thought was my car being towed away. I then took the bus a few blocks to my apartment, and sure enough, my car had been towed. I had, apparently, been illegally parked. Seeing as I don't use my car very often here in the city, it would likely have been days before I would've even noticed it was gone! We called the towing company and they charged $50 extra for every day the car was left there. Needless to say, I feel very fortunate that I happened to be at the same intersection at the same time to notice my car was being towed!! I think the chances of that happening is very small and it is very coincidental!!!
(C.H.) After I graduated from undergrad I was looking for a job. I found one very quickly at Blockbuster. This would be good for the time being . I was still looking for a job in my field. My degree is in Social Work. I sent resumes all over. I also called any number I could find. One day I took a phone book and began to call all Social Service numbers on the list. I called the Urban League of Pittsburgh or so I thought. A lady answered the phone and I told her I was looking for a job where I could use my sociology degree. My first coincidence was I called the Urban League Charter \School not the Urban League. Th second coincidence was their guidance counselor had just moved away. i then learned that the lady who answered the phone was the principal and we went to the same college. She invited me to come visit the school the next day. I went to visit and meet with her. While talking to her I found out that we had the same birthday and she knew all my aunts and uncles. They all grew up together. There was no coicincidence when I was offered the job.
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