It's a small, small, small, small world after all

We just passed our ten-year anniversary in our ward. I never dreamed I would live in the same place and same ward for so long. I have watched a lot of friends come and go through the years, with some surprises along the way.

A few years ago, a young family moved into our ward. Imagine my shock when I realized it was someone who was in my ward (during high school) in Utah. In fact, he was the younger brother of a guy I had a crush on my sophomore year of high school. Oh boy. . .it's funny how your past can come back to mock you. It's a small world.

Until high school, I lived in a small, isolated desert town in another state. My dad worked for the government, and it was a great place for them to test missiles because no one else in their right mind would have lived there. I learned that after 105 degrees, it doesn't really matter because it is just plan miserably hot.

I am always surprised at the number of people who are familiar with my hometown--because, really, it is WAY out in the middle of no where. Even stranger, my mother always seemed to run into someone who had connections there no matter where she went. She always said that no matter where you go, you will find someone from there. That proved true when I lived in my apartment at college. One of the guys in the apartment through the wall was from there, even though I didn't know him while I lived there.

I was a bit surprised that for the majority of the time I have been in my current ward, I never ran into anyone who lived there. That all changed a couple of years ago when I discovered that a friend and her husband were both from there. She had been there the same time I lived there, and we had common friends, but somehow we never knew each other. It was cool, but I was a still a tad bit disappointed that it was not someone I knew from my years there.

That all changed last Sunday.

I was sitting in church, and a new family was being introduced. They were sitting just ahead of me and to the side, so I never got a good look at them, but the whole time I had a nagging feeling that I knew the wife.

I reminded myself, what are the odds that someone I knew from my junior high days would move into my ward? With six billion or so in the world, I knew it wasn't likely.

By the end of the meeting, I knew I had to go introduce myself and see if she was my old friend. Unfortunately, she left quickly to go get her children, so I didn't get a chance to see her. Her husband was still around, so I went up to him and asked what his wife's maiden name was.

It turns out the odds were very good. I chased her down and we had a "no way!" moment.

She is a friend of mine from hometown my Ridgecrest days. I haven't been there in 20 years, but somehow my life took me here, and her life brought her into my ward. Wow.

It's a small, small, small world after all.