Statistics in a Modern World 800
Coincidence Stories

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...

(E.C.) One time when I was flying to New York City with my family and I was the person who had to sit alone for the flight - it was my turn, since we rotate. Well, while I was on the flight I was doing my homework and I wrote my name and the top of my paper. The person sitting next to me was glancing at what I was doing - he noticed that I wrote "Emily Crawford" and he was really excited! He then said to me, "My girlfriend's name is Emily Crawford, you guys have the same name!" I thought that was awesome because I had never met anyone with the same name as me! After we figured that funny coincidence out, we had a great conversation for the remainder of the flight!

(A.L.) A couple days ago, I went to the basketball gym with three of my friends. We decided to have a shooting game, in which everyone shoots ten shots behind the 3 point line. Coincidentally we all made 4 out of 1o shots. We play this shooting game a lot and this was the first time that all four people tied.

(B.B.) This past summer I took a trip to Boston to visit my cousin. While in Boston I remembered that a friend from high school was now living there. I meant to give my friend a call to see if we could get together, but my trip was so busy that I completely forgot to call. Out of a strange coincidence I did get to see my friend. On the flight back home to Pittsburgh I realized that he was on my plane (He was returning home for the weekend) His assigned seat was directly in front of mine. The woman sitting next to me offered to switch so that we could catch up on the ride home.

(J.C.) In my hometown there is another family with the last name Campana that are not related to us. When I was five, a brother of Gabe Campana (not in my family) moved to Williamsport. The man's daughter's name was Julia Campana! Her middle initial is D and mine is C, so now when I go to the library they always get us confused, sometimes people tag us in each others photos on facebook. And when I would be in the newspaper for music or sports, she would be in it for gymnastics, and I would get congratulated for gymnastic events! She even has my color hair and skin tone so in action pictures it looked just like me.

(D.C.) Last summer I was taking the MegaBus to visit a friend that goes to school in Philadelphia. On the way home (Harrisburg), I ended up sitting next to one of my old high school friends, who also goes to school in Philadelphia, named Krysten. I had not spoken to her in over a year, but had always had it on the back of my mind to reconnect with her. It just so happened that she was going home to Harrisburg the same exact day that I was and we just happened to be on the same exact bus. Since we had about two and a half hours to kill on the bus, we ended up talking the entire time and reconnecting just as I had hoped. Ever since that day, we've been in closer contact with one another. I probably would have never ended up reconnecting with Krysten if it hadn't been for the strange "coincidence" of the MegaBus.

(M.C.) In third grade I befriended a girl, Megan, who turned out to be my birthday twin. She and I were also born at the same hospital, exactly 20 minutes apart, and our moms even saw each other in the hospital! Megan's cousin, also named Melissa Ann, was born that day as well. Later, we discovered that Megan and my mom are birthday twins too (but a few years apart) AND our little siblings share a half birthday. Who would have thought??

(Z.F.) During my sophomore year of high school I did a leadership conference in Washington DC. The roommate I was assigned, "Dave", was from Phoenix AZ. We lost touch shortly after the program ended, and I hadn't heard from him since. Two years ago I was flying alone out to San Diego for family reasons via a layover in Houston. Due to weather, my second flight was delayed so I decided to spend some time wandering the Houston airport. Upon my return to the gate I ended up sitting down right next to a guy about my age who looked familiar; it ended up being 'Dave'. We recognized each other and caught up. Not only was he also heading to San Diego, he was doing so for a job interview with one of the directors of the conference we had attended in high school.

(A.R.) My coincidence is that one night over the summer, I dreamt of my Great Uncle. I had not seen him for many many years and had not even really thought about him. No one had mentioned him at all recently, so I had no real reason to have him in my dream. The next morning, my Aunt called my house. I answered the phone and she told me that she had some very important news. My dad wasn't at home so I told her that I could take a message. She then informed me that my Great Uncle had died during the night. This was definitely extremely surprising to me, for as I have said, there was no reason for me to think of my Great Uncle (and thus there was no apparent causal connection), but he died the very same night that he was in my dream. It was a very strange coincidence!

(J.S.) I remember you mentioned something about emailing you coincidence stories. I saw them up on the website and remembered one of my own. In high school, I studied three years of Spanish and for two of those three, Senorita S was our teacher. About halfway through the second year with her, I found out quite the surprising coincidence, or rather, triple coincidence at this point. We were working on an exercise to help us learn some new concepts. Senorita S was demonstrating the proper uses with an example, describing the small town PA where she grew up. To my surprise, we both lived in the same town at the same time, while she was in high school and I was in elementary school. I even interrupted class in order to ask if she remembered the old plaza by the new elementary school. My family owned a really successful Chinese restaurant in the plaza and lots of folks from town ate there while they shopped. Senorita S not only remembered the restaurant, but she was a frequent customer and even remembered the owners' two little kids who ran around the restaurant. One of them was me. So: we had met years ago in a small town in PA; she went to college and became a teacher; I moved twice, far away from that town, and enrolled into my last school district; she taught Spanish there and I took her class for two years; she randomly mentioned where she's from and wha-la, coincidences!

(J.M.) An example of a coincidence I once had was this one time I was at work during my senior year of high school. I was a cashier at the local supermarket and one afternoon I rang up two customers in a row and their totals were exactly the same at $49.19. I remember this because that year I took probability and statistics and I remember thinking myself after I checked out the second What are the chances that two people back to back have the same purchased amount, yet they had entirely different things and the figure was very strange (not like $9.99).customer;

(L.D.) This coincidence didn't happen to me, it happened to my grandfather recently, but hopefully it will still count! My grandfather was at his 50 year reunion, and was talking to one of his old friends that he hadn't seen or talked to for years. My grandfather's friend started telling my grandfather about the cat that he adopted. The cat was all black, a stray, and a girl that he named KC (for Kitty Cat). My grandfather was shocked, because years ago he and my grandmother had also adopted an all black, female, stray cat and named her KC, for Kitty Cat! It was a funny coincidence.

(G.Z.) About two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be elected to Pitt's Homecoming Court. My parents did not buy tickets to the football game and had plans to buy them off of scalpers the day of the game. Well, they could not find any scalpers and wanted to see me in the pregame parade. While standing along the parade route, they ended up standing next to last year's homecoming queen's parents. They told her parents about how they didn't have tickets to the game yet. Her parents had 4 tickets sitting in their car that they were not planning on using and were able to give them to my parents and grandparents, for free!

(J.R.) -We ran into a family we knew at the exact same Beauty and the Beast show at Disney World
-We ran into my first grade teacher on the same cruise ship
-We ran into my dads coworker's family at Universal Studios
-We ran into a family we knew at the same show at Medieval Time
s -We ran into a girl from my volleyball team's family sitting right next to us on the beach at Myrtle Beach

(D.C.) Just earlier this semester, I had been carrying an unbrella in both of backpacks in case it would start to rain on my way to class. Knowing Pittsburgh weather, I knew that it would eventually come in hand. However, after a couple days of no rain, I decided to take the unbrella out of my backpack in order to lighten the load of books, folders, etc. As I walked out of my building, I realized that it was looking a little cloudy and dark out. I began walking to class, only to find myself in a downpour without an unmbrella. I was completely soaked by the time I got to class.

(C.S.) When I was in high school I went on a trip with my best friend and her family to Florida. I was seated in the last row of the plane next to a man who looked like he was on a business trip. We made small talk and exchanged a few words obviously out of common courtesy. On the flight home, I just so happened to be seated next to the same man! I thought to myself, what are the chances? Must be a coincidence !

(M.F.) Four of my friends and I had travelled to Disney World for a senior week and to celebrate our graduation from C.B. West High School in Doylestown, PA. We were in Epcot on our first day there and discussing what teachers we were sad to leave, glad to leave, or what we thought of the rest of the faculty we would leave behind. As we were talking and agreeing about one of our least favorite teachers, Mr. Blake, we decided to take a quick trip to the bathroom before heading into line for Rock Roller Coaster. As we turned to go towards the bathroom, lo and behold Mr. Blake and his family head towards us! We quickly changed the conversation and greeted Mr. Blake. Of all places! Right outside the bathroom (which we t even going to go to) in Epcot in Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

(A.M.) I was Downtown this past weekend and when I was walking down the street I ran into a kid that went to my high school. I found this to be a coincidence because my high school is small (nearly 800 people total) and he doesn't attend the University of Pittsburgh or any college around here for that matter. I found out that he works in downtown Pittsburgh for a living.

(B.G.) Almost everytime I go to text my best friend she texts me at the same time, or will call me right then to tell me she was just thinking of me and was going to text me.

(C.O.) Here is my coincidence (well, my twin sister's, but it still relates to me): My identical twin sister, Molly, was attending a summer conference in Phoenix, Arizona (she attends the University of Oregon). While mingling with other students from other colleges, she noticed a group of people staring at her and following her. At first she avoided them, but because of her friendly personality, she decided to approach the weird people wearing panther hats and wearing long blue and yellow socks. When she finally said "Hi! My name is Molly, what's your name?" to the group of people, they were VERY confused. Not until Molly noticed the "PITT" emblem on their T-shirts did she finally ask if they knew me. The Pitt students, whom I had gotten to know that previous Spring semester, had no idea I was an identical twin. No wonder they were confused! Wouldn't it be weird to see someone that looks EXACTLY like a friend of yours on the opposite side of the country? I thought that was a big coincidence. What were the chances that my sister's university and the University of Pittsburgh would both be participating in this conference? Also, what were the chances that out of the entire PITT student population, the PITT group attending the conference knew me? Also, there were hundreds of students there from dozens of other universities and colleges. What were the chances that they would have even bumped into each other?

(D.K.) Mine is a vacation-related story: my family was vacationing in North Carolina (I was about 10), and it just so happened that 3 other families (and their kids, who were my friends) were vacationing at the same place. Neither of our families planned the trip or even knew we would all be there, but it turned out to be a blast because all of us (at the time) kids could play together!

(L.S.) Two years I ago I studied abroad in Siracusa, Italy. I studied at a very small school that only ten or fifteen other American students study at. The program is very small because it is aimed specifically at people who want to learn the Italian Language because the school is located on one-mile island off of the island of Sicily. When I got to Siracusa and went to check out the school, I saw a girl that I went to high school with. We had not seen each other since high school. It was a very strange coincidence that out of all the study abroad programs we both picked a small and lesser known one and decided to study at the same time.

(M.K.) I'm receptionist for a hairsalon and all the time crazy coincidences happen all the time. The weirdest though was one day we had two appointments for an Elizabeth Green, on the same night, at the same time but with two different stylists. The appointments were made at different times by 2 different people so we decided to leave them. When that day rolled around two different Elizabeth Greens showed up, and it turns out that they had been trying to find each other because both were receiving calls for the other one randomly. I remember the one saying to the other that she had been reminded of her dinner reservation once. It's weird how things like that happen.

(A.K.) When I was seven years old, I lived in a house with my parent's where the house number was 929. Our telephone number was easy for me to remember because the middle three digits were also 929. My parents told me that we were moving, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to remember our new phone number. Well, coincidentally, our new house number was 326. Our new phone number was also, 724-326-XXXX. I thought to myself that this was strange but as a young child it helped me remember my phone number. The fact that my house numbers and the three-digit phone numbers were matching was purely a coincidence.

(M.M.) I have been going to the same vacation spot ever since I was 3 years old. A few years ago after being at the same spot for 10 or so years I ran into some friends from home who were staying on the same resort. I found that they have actually been going to the same exact place for the same week as us for many years now and I never had any idea. Now every year we spend time together when we're down there.

(R.D.) A couple of weeks ago, my roommate and I went shopping, and we happened to buy the same shirt and the same scarf. She goes to CMU, so we don't ever have classes together. We see each other in the morning before school and then after. On two separate occasions, we've walked out of the house wearing the same exact outfit, even the same boots. We both own a ridiculous amount of clothing, so the chances of wearing the same thing seemed pretty slim.

(S.P.) > I run local music at WPTS, so I meet a lot of local bands and artists. The > band that we have come in most frequently is called Action Camp, who has > come to play our live show annually. I have spoken to them frequently, as > they are nice people, but we have never spoke about where we live. > > One day, I was waiting for the bus when the lead singer, Bengt, happened > to walk by. We exchanged greetings and then he walked across and down the > street, down to his house...which was three blocks away from my apartment.

(M.W.) This past summer I went out west for the first time with my girlfriend and her family. The last part of our trip included staying on a dude ranch in Cody, Wyoming. Strangely enough, the owners of the ranch were both born and raised in Pennsylvania. They also had friends and family in the area we live. This made for exciting conversation around the campfire every night!

(M.H.) I don't know if it's to late to tell you about a coincidence but one that occurred in my life happened over fall break. Me and my family were talking to an older couple at my grandparents assisted living home and the Chesapeake bay was brought up. They had mentioned they knew a artist who lived on the bay who had just put his house up for sale. It turns out that my parents had just bought the house. It's crazy how coincidences can occur like that...

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