Have you ever tried to guess what number someone was thinking and turned out to be correct? Did you ever have a friend who turned out to be born the same day, year, and at the same hospital as you? Have you ever dated someone only to discover that you shared a relative?
Coincidences can be a really funny and, sometimes, blessed encounter (with the exception of that last example). You never know when they will happen but, when they do, you rarely forget about them. People who have ran into such odd occurrences shared on Reddit their own stories that prove we really do live in a small world.
Unidentified Ailing College Student
“I was in an accident in college that lead to me not know my identity, due to a severe concussion. When they tried to notify my family, there was no information available since I was admitted alone and with no cell phone for contacts.
My parents were visiting family that week out of state on a trip without a set agenda for lodging. They were basically just going to find a hotel with vacancy. The night I was hurt, they got a call from the front desk that their son had been hurt in an accident. Now, there was no way they could have known that I was hurt.
Ten minutes later, the front desk called back apologizing profusely for the call. There were two families with the same (uncommon) last name staying at the hotel that night. They simply called the wrong family to tell them that their son had been in an accident the same night I had been.
My mom was still extremely uneasy and called my brother to check. They talked to him and he was fine. But when she couldn’t get a hold of me, she started to panic. Only when she got my roommate, who they found through the university housing system, did they discover it.”
Welcome To My Nightmare
“I don’t know if this counts as a coincidence, because it might be influenced by the commonalities between us, but I was reading through one of my dad’s old journals and found out that he and I share the same and reoccurring nightmare. The details are basically identical, even down to the frequency of it happening (once a month). It’s very trippy.
The dream involves being chased by wild dogs – three of them, all black, wolf-looking beasts. We run into the house (the one that I grew up in; he bought it before I was born) and into the same room (his bedroom). That’s where they catch us and tear us to pieces. It’s freaking horrible.
As far as I can remember, I never discussed this with my dad. I felt OK perusing his journal because he has been dead for quite a while now, but having nothing in common with the details of the dream. It was suicide. I guess you can make of that what you will.”
It’s Like A Less Violent Version of “Looper”
“My husband and I were shopping around Walmart when we saw an older couple who happened to be shopping in almost all the same aisles as us. I made a joke to my husband that it was us 40 years in the future, because the wife was wearing Victoria’s Secret pink sweatpants, like me, and carrying a purse the same brand as mine. We ended up passing each other in the dog food aisle, as they picked out the same brand of dog food and treats as us. Noticing the humor in the moment, we struck up a conversation with them.
We ended up finding out that like us, they had one daughter with a very rare four-syllable first name, like our daughter. The had two dogs, one which was a German Shepherd/beagle mix… just like ours.
OK, this is getting weirder…
We live next to ‘xyz’ high school, they live next to ‘xyz’ elementary school a couple miles from us. We finished up our small talk, checked out, and went to our vehicle to load up the groceries. Next to our vehicle was a car with an identical make, model, and year. The only difference was this car was red and mine is blue. I joked to my husband again, ‘Oh, maybe this car belongs to our future selves from in the store.’
Sure enough, who came out of the store and got in the car next to us? You guessed it. Their car even had body damage on the right side of it, like mine. It was an absolutely eerie experience, almost like we met ourselves in an alternate dimension or timeline.”
Immature Minds Think Alike
“One night in college, I was fooling around with my then-girlfriend and noticed that the brightness of the TV caused us to cast distinct shadows on the wall behind us. Being 19 and a fool, I took this opportunity to take a pic (using Snapchat) of the shadow my erect member made on the wall and sent the pic to my best friend.
I thought it would elicit an interesting reaction, but could not have prepared for what was next. You see, on Snapchat you can see when someone receives your message as well as when it’s opened. So, as my message was sending, STILL UNOPENED BY HIM, I receive a snapchat from the same best friend. I opened it and, low an behold, what did I see? A SHADOW DONG SNAP. This man decided, at the exact same time that I did, to send an identical pic of his wiener’s shadow on the wall. Both of our girlfriends were confused, thinking it was some inside joke when, in reality, we had never spoken of or sent shadow dongs ever before.”
A Notoriously Weird Dream
“I had a dream that my friend and I ran into Biggie Smalls (he was alive in the dream world) and he invited us to a party that night. We decided that we were going to buy Biggie a gift and I suggested that we get him a water dragon (a big lizard) because Biggie would look dope rocking a water dragon on his shoulder. We started walking to the party with the lizard and we were at the local park. I looked down next to a bench and there was a snaplock bag with white powder. We took the white powder and partied with Biggie that night.
The next day, I woke up and went to make a coffee. I turned on the radio and a Biggie song was playing. I thought it was a strange coincidence considering I had a dream about Biggie, but thought nothing too much of it. I walked outside and froze. On my porch was a water dragon. A water dragon might appear around my house maybe two or three times a year. I spoke to my mate later that day and told him about the dream and joked that I might find a bag of coke later that day. Sure enough, as I was walking to my mate’s house at night, I humored the idea. So I walked over to the bench and found a bag of coke exactly where I dreamt it would be.
I definitely disposed of the bag, though. My friends and I definitely, hypothetically, did not snort the coke while playing Biggie Smalls songs all night and into the morning having the best time of our lives. That would be preposterous!”
Joke’s On You, Kid
“A classmate of mine sent a fake email that looked totally legit to select members of my class, saying that we had failed a really important exam which carried bad consequences for our career. After we freaked out, he let us know it was just a joke. When the results came out a week later, there was only one person who failed: my classmate who sent the fake email.”
“I Started Reading… And I Stopped”
“In tenth grade English class, the teacher didn’t have anything planned for us to do and it was close to the end of the year, I guess, so she went to the big cupboard in the corner and pulled out a stack of copies. They were examples of successful essays written during a final exam, so we could learn what a good one looked like and how to build a narrative, etc. They were anonymized.
The topic of these was, ‘what was the most pivotal moment of your life?’ There were three examples, ranging in proficiency. We read through the first two and I volunteered to read the last one aloud. I started reading… and I stopped.
The essay was about… me. My big sister had gotten a really good mark six years earlier on her final exam essay, which she wrote about the day I was born. I got pretty emotional about that one. It explained the exact details of the day of my birth from her perspective, a variation of the story I had heard hundreds of times from my mom. But this was super special because I was able to read how important the day was to her. It felt like hearing someone recount how genuinely they love you, to someone else, not at all knowing you’d ever hear it. I love her a lot.
We found out later it happened because we went to different schools at the same school board. No way the teacher knew though. She was just as shocked and happily surprised as I was.”
“His Look Of Shock Was So Incredible”
“I told my uncle I could speed read as a joke when I was about 11 or so. He handed me this enormously thick book that was super boring looking and was probably 1000-plus pages of very fine print. I took the book, trying to figure out a punch line to my prank. I skimmed through it obnoxiously fast, not even speed reading fast, but just fanning all 1000 pages in maybe three or four seconds.
‘OK, ask me a question,’ I said, ‘prepare to be impressed.’
He asked after some thinking, ‘What did Margaret order at the bar?’
Now, while I was skimming, I quite literally saw a single phrase flash before my eyes. I didn’t even think anything of it at the time. But, I said it then: ‘Bloody Mary with no ice.’
His look of shock was so incredible, I will never forget it. I walked away pretending I planned to do that but, inside, I died of excitement at what had just happened.”
A Sign From The License Bureau
“My wife and I had been trying to get pregnant for a couple months. One amazing day, I came home to find out that she peed on a stick and guess what? We were pregnant. We scheduled an appointment with the doctor’s office to confirm and start our appointments.
On the way to that first doctor’s appointment, I ended up behind a white Lexus SUV. The license plate read ‘TWNBOYS.’
That’s a weird license plate, I thought. I turned to my wife and conveyed my thoughts. She laughed and we joked about it. We got to our appointment, and the doctor said, ‘Oh, goodness. Do you see what I see?’ My wife started crying in joy and I had no idea what was going on. There were two sacs. We were having twins.
Months later, we wanted to do a gender reveal. I’m a hockey player, so what better way than chalk hockey pucks. I shot the first puck and it exploded into blue powder. I took a moment and shot the second… blue powder. We are now six months along with our healthy twin baby boys.”