CouchCrash: Meeting Each Other Again

It's 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday; I'm doing wall sits next to a stranger, trying to push them over while two friends are yelling at us, cheering/laughing their respective teammate on to victory.

Welcome to Couchsurfing.

It's the most expected unexpectedness you will ever find and, just when I think I'll run out of new content, someone sends a request and we take off on our own unique journey together.

That's Jake and Jon.  All the usual came to pass - it instantly felt like we'd known each other for months, they were up for anything, drinks were had, stories shared, memories made...

But Jake said something that got me thinking throughout the night: "...It doesn't matter.  I can say what I want and do what I want, because we're probably never going to see each other again."

And that made me sad - it was actually something that had  been weighing on me lately - the idea that we are all just in each others' lives for a fleeting moment and, once that moment has passed, we will only ever see each other again smiling back at us through Facebook pictures.

Sometimes, that's exactly how it's meant to be.

But, other times, I refuse to accept that.  I realize that we have become more interwoven than we originally thought.

For example, a CSer gives you a book that you pass on to another, a CSer introduces you to someone/somewhere new in your own town or, your CSers run into each other without even knowing that they have you, their host, in common.

That actually happened.  Jake and Jon told me that, as they were driving East (5 hours from me), two bikers with American flags on their backpacks were riding West.  As it turns out, those bikers were Xavier and Julian from earlier that week, and Jake and Jon were my guests coming to me that night.  Two Belgium band players, a Canadian and a Minnesotan that seemingly couldn't be further apart - isn't that crazy.

It's weird to think that you may be much more connected to that stranger on the bus (or anywhere) than you think. 

I have introduced you to meeting strangers and how you make just find out how much you have in common.  But now, I'm going to travel and purposely not meet a stranger, but meet up with a new friend in a new city.

It's a romaniticized idea - perhaps - that we were all meant to run into each other again, possibly around the world, years from now, but it's an idea I'll hold on to for now.

I actually found out that Jake and Jon are going to the same town I'm traveling to next weekend for a Couchsurfer event.  I have shown them around my town, now they get to show me around theirs.

I'm joining the Minneapolis CouchCrash.....