Photo credit to Hello I'm Nik

I talked about the value of stories in a previous post. I find it fascinating to hear what people have lived through as it opens me to more perspectives in life.

My favourite kind of stories are the stories of how it's possible to meet people by sheer chance. I believe it is serendipity that describes what happens in these kinds of stories, which is something I love.

serendipity
/ˌsɛr(ə)nˈdɪpɪti/
noun
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
(also known as a happy chance)

A catch from the sea without a hook.

Photo credit to Andreas Wagner

I'll share one story of this kind that I lived through in December of 2015.

I got an invite to the closed beta of a game called Rainbow Six Siege and so did a couple of my friends. We decided one day to play a few games to try it out. So we started a game and we got put into a match with a Finnish person. We talked in voice chat a few times and eventually when the game ended, he invited us to his Teamspeak server.
We joined and played a couple more matches until he had to go somewhere, so we decided to call it a day. I closed down Teamspeak and went to do something else.

The next day I got on my computer and after watching a few YouTube for an hour eventually got bored and decided, against everything I was like at that time (introvert who didn't really hang out in Teamspeak that much) to join the Teamspeak server. I looked around and saw that the Finnish person was not there. I was ready to close Teamspeak and do something else but I saw that there was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive channel there with a few people in it. I decided to join and say hello. As one might expect, the people were playing CS:GO. I joined and we got to talking.

We chatted about life and at one point someone mentioned Minecraft and that they were planning on making a server with a really cool gamemode. I mentioned that I had run a server once before and that I had made plugins for Minecraft servers before. We talked some more and if I am not mistaken, I offered to help.

We made plans. We calculated. We discussed. We got started.

Long story short, we did a lot, but unfortunately, due to various reasons, the project did not get completed. We still talked and did stuff together. One of the two people introduced me to a forum called MC-Market, where I got my humble beginnings as a freelance graphic designer. That start turned into something bigger and is now actively turning into my very own company.

The person who introduced me to the forum went on to study cyber security and is now hoping to do a year of practical experience in my country and I'm excited to meet him, a person I've known for a few years.

Here's to the future, Jamie and Ali.

🍾 🥂

Conclusion

This is one of my favourite stories to tell because there are so many variables in it that if one of them had gone differently, everything would have changed and the outcome would have been extremely different.

Call to Action

You've heard my story, now share one of yours in the replies below! I look forward to reading them. :)

If you have any feedback, I'm open to hearing constructive criticism in the replies as well!

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Stories - a uniquely human quality.