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...

(G.L.) my coincidence has to do with an ordeal in which I was leaving a bar and stopped by a pizza place that was up the street from where i lived and i got a slice of pizza and went home. The next morning i recieved a text message from my roomate saying that the cops wanted to see me about a break in to someones house that was by the pizza place. someone saw a guy who was tall dark and wearing a brown shirt with dark jeans climbing out of someones window. The guy was wearing almost the same outfit that i was and he so happened to break into a house that i had walked by which was in the opposite direction of the bar from my house. after about 3 hours of questioning the cops released me. turns out the guy was someone who i had seen at the very same bar that night and had actually talked to.

(J.M.) My second cousin and I share a birthday, October 22nd, which is coincidence within itself. But the thing that makes it even more of a coincidence is that our mothers, who are only 5 years apart, we're born on the same days as well, July 29th. It seemed like such a huge coincidence to me that two people in a family would have the same birthday, but to also have the mothers of those two people have the same birthday as well seemed like a very extreme coincidence, but now after class, I'm not so sure it is that statistically amazing.

(J.K.) I was born on April 5th, which happens to be my mom's birthday (what a great present), also my best friend from elementary and middle school had the same birthday (April 5th). I just went to the pharmacy three days ago to pick up a prescription and the pharmacist asked me my name and birthday. I told him my name and birthday, and then he replied that his birthday was also April 5th and that my perscription would be free (jokingly).

(D.I.) One night I went out to eat with my friends. The restaurant was really crowded so we had to put our names in for the wait. For some reason we decided to put my name and my friends name together, just so we would know for sure it was our table that was being called. So the reservation was under both our names for a table of 5 and they told us it would be a 45 minute wait. Forty minutes later the hostess called our name for 5. At the same time another group came up saying it was them. It turned out someone's actual name was the name my friends and I put down and they needed a table for 5 too. It was very coincidental.

(L.M.) Here is my coincidence story.... I'm from a small town about 6 hours north east of here and a few summers ago I went to a baseball game with one of my friends from home, Brittany. At the game we ran into one of her friends from school who was with one of his friends. We all were chatting and the friend of a friend of a friend, Jackie said that she went to Pitt. So we ended up finding out that we were living in dorms right beside one another for the coming up school year. We ended up being friends on facebook a few days later and we figured out that we had the same birthday. We later figured out that we were born in the same hospital as well. So we were born in the same hospital on the same day and both ended up at Pitt and meeting randomly back at home. Then, as if that isn't enough, one of my friends from Pitt studied abroad with 2 other girls from Pitt and when I met them we figured out that one of the girls she went to London with is Jackie's roommate! It's a small world!

(A.L.) My first night at Pitt, I went to dinner with my parents at Joe s, an Italian restaurant on campus. The restaurant was busy, so my Mom put her name down for the 3 of us. A woman standing near her overheard my s accent and asked where she lives. She said s from Queens, NY but lives on Long Island in Syosset. It turns out that this woman lives in Buffalo, NY but grew up in Syosset.. on our block! I spoke with her daughter for a little bit and we ended up being friends. We are roommates this year and often laugh about this coincidence. sheMomMama

(A.R.) Coincidence: I was walking to class with my roommate on the first day of class this semester. We both had class in the cathedral and were enjoying catching up on our summers during our walk. We were talking so much that we didn't get the chance to ask each other what class we were going to. We entered the cathedral and looked at a map to find where our classrooms were located. I said I was looking for G-24, she stopped and looked at me, and said that was the room she was going to! We were both had signed up for the same geology lecture without knowing it.

(S.G.) Once, when I was little, I was shopping with my mom and we were in the dressing room trying on clothes. I was watching my mom show me her outfits, and I was also watching this other girl about my age try on clothes too. Every time she came out of the dressing room, I would make a face at her, because I was a mean child, and because I would never see her again. Wrong. The next day, on my first ay of kindergarten, she comes up to me, wearing one of her new shirts, and says, "Hi, I'm Megan. Let's be friends." I have no idea why she said that after the horrible things I had thought about her. But we're best friends now. No lie.

(J.R.) The following coincidence happened to me at the beginning of this semester and it still baffles me. When I moved into my present dorm I met our next door neighbor and found him to be very nice. Upon, further discussion we discovered that he had been in a theater group with one of my best friends from high school. However, the weirdest thing was that I had actually seen him perform in one of the musicals that this group put on for I had gone to watch my friend. I thought it was a huge coincidence that of all the people at the University of Pittsburgh I would end up living next door to somebody who I have a very interesting mutual connection with.

(S.F.) A coincidence in my life that occurred recently is that last semester I had a Monday and Tuesday night class. A friend of mine who I do not see often had a Monday and Tuesday night class at the same time as mine, at 6 pm. On the first day of class, Monday, I happened to see him. This semester I have a Monday and Tuesday night class at 6 pm. On the first day of class, Monday, I saw him. It is a coincidence that I would have a night schedule similar to his two semesters in a row. Another coincidence this semester is that the past three semester I had someone I had a crush on. On the first day of class of this semester I saw each boy from each semester, in the order descending from the one I had liked most recent to least recent.

(T.A.) It was a coincidence when My family and I went to Europe for a cruise and while we were on a cruise of over 1200 people we saw my brothers best friend. Neither of them knew they were going on the same cruise, but they ended up being on the same deck. Of all the cruises they could go on the two of them ended up on the same one and on the same floor.

(C.C.) University of Pittsburgh is an out-of-state school for me. I arrived freshman year thinking that I didn't know a single person on campus from my high school. One day, about halfway through the year, I was walking to class when I bumped into someone I was very familiar with--my next door neighbor! Coincidentally, she had transferred to Pitt that year without knowing that I attended the same school.

(M.I.) My coincidence story goes back to when i was a freshman. In the year sense, i have not met anyone from Connecticut. I myself am from norwalk Connecticut and to be honest if it wasn't for baseball i would not be at PITT either. So when i was a freshman i figured no one from Connecticut would be around, and the coincidence is that the first girl that i met was from a small town called Simsbury in Connecticut. She didn't think he would meet anyone from Connecticut either. It was a really wierd experiance that has led to a great friendship between the two of us.

(S.K.) Last year I was taking two classes completely unrelated: Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture and Japanese Art. In my russian class we were reading a popular, modern russian book entitled Buddha's Little Finger, which philosophized Russian attitude towards democracy. In the book, the main character meets a Japanese leader named Oda Nobunaga. The very same day I went to my Japanese Art class, the topic of the lecture being samurai leaders. The leader we talked about for half the class was Oda Nobunaga,who apparently one of the most gruesome leaders in Japanese history. I had never even heard of this historical figure before and I learned about him twice in one day, and to me it was such a wierd coincidence

(A.E.) I'm from Texas, and I have a best friend Camille. We both decided to go out of state for college. She went to the University of Purdue, and I (obviously) went to Pitt. Well last year, there was a girl on my floor named Maura from New York and she and I became really good friends. There was a girl on Camille's floor, name Kristen (from New York), who she became really good friends with. It turns out that Maura and Kristen had been best friends in high school, like Camille and I! It was really funny when we found out. What a coinikidink!

(E.F.) One coincidence that stands out to me is that my next door neighbor back home and I have the same exact birthday (December 12, 1989) and share reversed first and middle names (I'm Eileen Alison and she is Alison Eileen). Very strange!

(J.J.) In my junior year of high school I was fortunate enough to go to Germany. My student exchange partner was older than I and he had a younger sister Stephanie. Stephanie has the EXACT same birthday as me, June 5, 1990. I thought this was a real big coincidence because what is the likelihood that my exchange partner from Germany would have a sister with the same birthday as me.

(N.H.)When I was in 6th grade, my family took a vacation to Philadelphia for spring break. We stayed at a hotel in the city for a few nights. The first morning there, we went down to breakfast and saw our neighboring family there too! It turned out they decided to go to Philly for spring break too, and made reservations at the same hotel for the same number of nights.

(T.Z.) A girl in my intro to poetry class is from Gettysburg, PA and my friend Sierra from high school is going to Gettysburg College. The girl from my poetry class and I were talking about Gettysburg, and I told her about Sierra. She told me to tell Sierra about a foreign exchange student boy who was currently attending Gettysburg College, because he was really awesome and interesting. That evening before I had a chance to give Sierra his name, I saw that he had written on her Facebook wall.

(C.M.) i was in sign language today and before the teacher got there i can texting a friend. all of a sudden a kid in my class goes "is there a girl named christy in this class?" i look up and go "yeah thats me." and he says "oh cause i was just texting my friend tracy and she said you might be in this class." and i go "oh tell i was just texting her too and she said there might be a kid named tyler in this class." and he just goes "oh well im tyler." they we just proceeded to ask how we both knew tracy.

(P.M.) Last weekend I went to New York City and I was in a bar in Brooklyn with my friend Matt. We were joined by his friend Gaines and talked about the usual things; work, school etc. Gaines was telling a story about how everyone mistakes him for being 25 or 26 and I said that I too get mistaken for being older than I actually am. When I asked Gaines how old he is he replied with 22, I said that I am also 22. Then I asked him when was he born, he replied March 26th and I paused in amazement that in all places and people I would find someone with the same birthday as me. To make matters more interesting we were born exactly 30 minutes apart. I thought this would end here, but the story continues.... We went to a Japanese restaurant later that night and my friend Matt was making fun of us for getting over excited about our birthdays. Matt asked the waitress when her birthday is and she replied, March 26th as well. Instant laughter ensued. It was a shock to me that I would find not only one but two people on the same night in the same city that share the same birthday with me.

(T.P.) My friend and I were suppose to meet at a party one nite. Upon my arrival we both realized that we had bought the same exact pair of boots for the same party! We couldn't stop laughing.

(M.Z.) This summer I was going to visit my grandparents in Germany, and took the train from Frankfurt to the town they live in. On the train I sat across from an elderly couple, and we started chatting, and it turned out that they had the same names as my grabdparents, which I thought was an interesting coincidence.

(N.P.) One time before my mom and I went out to the store, We were looking up some survey/quiz along the lines of "What song was at the top of the charts the year you were born?" The records didn't go as far back for when my mom was born, so the survey suggested instead of the year you were born, the year of your 18th birthday. My mom's result ended up being "A Horse with No Name" by the band America. We thought that was kind of funny, but as we were leaving the house and pulling out of the driveway, I turned on the radio, and the song that was playing on the radio as soon as I turned it on at that exact moment was "A Horse With No Name." Needless to say we were both creeped out.

(S.T.) When I went to Boston over spring break last year to visit my friend I was ice skating in the park and I saw one of my friends from school walking through the park. She had come to Boston with family to visit and we had coincidentally ran into each other.

(E.P.) When I was in elementary school(5th grade) my best friend Ben moved to North Carolina. A couple years later my family and I went on vacation to Miami Florida. While we were in the Florida I was sitting laying on the beach and I got up to go to the wash my feet off from the out door shower. I saw a familiar face washing at the same out door shower, so I look up and realize it my best friend Ben that I haven't seen or talked to in 7 years. I could not believe that we bad met up in Florida after all these years. To make things even weirder he was on the same floor at the same hotel as our family.

(B.B.) In our 10am Stats in the Modern World class, There is a student that I had a class with in high school. I went to high school in Middletown, Pa which is just outside of Harrisburg. I found this to be quite coincidental.

(K.R.) In May 2008 I went to Europe with my mom and her college students ( She is a professor at Villa Maria College in Buffalo). We traveled to the Vatican, where we had to wait in a really long line to go into the Basilica. So while waiting we struck up a conversation with the young man behind us. He was in his mid 20's and actually was from the same city as us, Buffalo! The real coincidence though is that his sister played in same the soccer club that I played in, only a year younger.

(C.S.) Coincidence: My Mom and one of our neighbors both have children that are the same age and were born one day apart from each other in the same year. They both also have grandchildren that were born on the same day and at the same time exactly one month apart.

(C.W.) Every year my family and I stay for a week in Avon, North Carolina. While shopping in a food lion there I wore a camp shirt from Severn high school, a local high school in my hometown that my boyfriend graduated from in 2006. Someone saw the shirt and told me they went to that high school and after talking for a couple minutes I learned he was the locker next to my boyfriend for four years of high school.

(E.H.) So I worked with this boy Seth in the Office of Admission and Financial Aid all summer. We got to be very close, and now he is one of my best friends. He grew up in Red Lion, Pennsylvania (right outside of York) which is where my Dad grew up. If that isn't coincidence enough, I found out that he was next door neighbors with my Great Aunt Mary and had known her since he was a child!

(E.D.) One Coincidence was when I discovered that myself and a clasmate (in high school) had the same birthday.

(R.P.) I went to Cape Town, South Africa when I was a senior in high school. The entire time I was there, I was pegged for the R&B singer usher. Maybe it was the sunglasses and the being an African American. So we go on a field trip to the mall and a waiter for our table starts to talk to me like he knew. Apparently I had already been there that day. It turns out that Usher was giving a concert that day and had already been in the mall.

(N.H.) As an English writing major, I come across a lot of different character names. In my Fiction class, our assignment is to write a short story and then have the class workshop it. The other day, we were workshopping a story whose two characters were named "Talia" and "Annie." My first and middle names are Natalia Ann. The girl that wrote the story, I had never met her before this class, and I'm fairly positive she doesn't know my name. So, of all the names she could have chosen for her characters, the millions that there are, she went with the two names that are close alterations of my first and middle names. Weird...

(K.F.) My coincidence is similar to the one mentioned in the lecture notes. In my elementry school grade level, there were four kids, including me who had the same birthday of September 28th, 1988.

(M.S.) My coincidence happened last year when I was driving back from work. My team took two vans, and when i was on Forbes I hit the side mirror off. I thought the other van was pulling over to wait for me, but it turns out that he hit his side mirror off too.

(J.B.) My name is Jessica and my nickname is "juice" and my boyfriend's name is Andy C. One day, I was bored and so I decided to Google Andy's name. A result showed up from the social networking site Bebo (a sort of facebook that was popular with british and irish kids for awhile). I clicked on the page to see an Andy C. [same last name] in England! On Bebo, you can link your significant other's page with a "the other half of me" label. And this Andy C. had his other half by the name of "Juicylicious." So of course I had to click on her page and I found that her real name is Jessica as well! So all the way across the world, there is another Andy C. who dates a Jessica with the nickname "juicy." What a coincidence!

Last month I flew to Baltimore, MD to visit someone that goes to the United States Naval Academy. Once at the airport in Baltimore (as I was waiting for a shuttle to pick me up), I met two other girls (one from Florida, one for Kansas) that were also going to visit their boyfriends for the day. In the shuttle bus to the Academy we also found out that we are all the same ago, have similar majors in college, and the boyfriends are all in the same company at USNA. Since then, we've stayed in touch and so have the midshipmen there.

(E.L.) My name is Emily Ruth Lyons, and there is another Emily Ruth Lyons that goes to the same doctor I do. Somehow our charts were mixed up and my immunization and other information was wrong.

(S.I.) When I was born, my Dad quickly realize that I shared my birthday with his father father'smy Great Pop Pop. When my Great Pop Pop arrived at the hospital to see me, my parents had just decided upon a name: Sarah Kate Ivins. They were the two names my parents could agree on, and were also the names of two of their favorite musicians. Then my Great Pop Pop smiled and remarked that my parents had inadvertently named me after his two childhood caretakers. My Great Great Pop Pop was killed by a trolly when my Great Pop Pop was young, and he was, therefore raised by his two aunts: Sarah and Kate. So... What a coincidence! I share the same birthday as my Great Pop Pop whose caretakers I was inadvertently named after!

(K.H.) While this is not as highly entertaining as two of me being in the same location, this is my personal coincidence story! Freshman year here at Pittsburgh I was randonly assigned my roommate for housing. I figured it could be anyone from anywhere. Ironically, the thing is, my roommate was in my graduating class in high school. It was completely a coincidence that we were put to live together. My school had a graduating class of 500 and we both just happened to be paired to room together at a school filled with an incredibly large number of incoming freshman. Luckily the pairing worked out and we are still roommates this year and very good friends!

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