‘Twas Wednesday, three days before graduating from college, and I had no clue. Most of my friends were bound for graduate schools. I was headed to be a freshman in the real world while living at my aunt’s apartment on East 69th in Manhattan; jobless, with a fantasy pipedream to someday take over hosting “The Tonight Show” post-Johnny Carson.
My dad called me that evening from Honolulu to tell me he’d bumped into Dennis Minga, VP of Team Hawai`i of the North American Soccer league (NASL) at the Team Hawai`i office downtown at the Amfac Center (now the Topa Financial Center). Dad was there to purchase a team tee shirt for his nephew- my cousin. Dennis had interviewed me at Christmastime six months earlier during holiday break and, upon spying my dad, told him that I should call Dennis ASAP about a possible job (pro soccer team- public relations director!).
I called Dennis on Thursday. Sunday, I flew home to my first, post-college job, bypassing my scheduled Manhattan college graduation party. The point to this saga? Serendipity… when good things happen by chance, changed and helped shape my life. If Mr. Minga was at lunch, a meeting, or in the bathroom when my tee-shirt-shopping dad went downtown that day, I wouldn’t have come home to Hawai`i. Maybe not a true miracle in this season of miracles, but certainly a fortuitous moment.
Who knows what the future would’ve held had I ventured to the Big Apple many decades ago. I do know that serendipity brought me here, and it can foretell great things- like how you meet your significant other or get a job- through its sheer happenstance. One way to possibly luck into serendipity is to put oneself out there, go places, meet people, or venture outside of your comfort zone. Because you never know…
As we start head into 2022, resuming interactions with humans outside of our isolation bubbles, who knows what serendipity might mean for you? The intricate networks found locally via connections can be rewarding. They can be frustrating, too, as everyone seems inter-connected in some way, where conflicts of interest occur far too often, but that’s another story.
The bottom line- if you want personal growth, opportunity, new experiences, change, or an expansion of your social/work circle- and perhaps your mind- put yourself out there, now that we can. Serendipity, how sweet it is.
Think about it…