The One in a Million

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>It's 2:30. Friday. Calc class. 10 minutes 'til the bell. Your mind has been wandering since lunch. You start thinking - where is that one in a million person I have yet to meet? Could he - or she - be in another calc class somewhere on this Earth? Or perhaps she's in an APUSH class, listening to the teacher drone on about LBJ and the Great Society rather than second derivatives, concavity, and that test next week. Or perhaps she's in a gym class somewhere, dominating at basketball, driving to the basket, making that lay-up like no one's business. Or perhaps she's at the international science fair, delineating the intricacies of her encryption algorithm with panache? </p>

<p>Have you ever wondered about whom - and where - your one in a million person is? Have you ever wondered where that person would understands all your nuances, that person who tolerates all your eccentricities - is? Has that person wandered past you in "crass obtuseness" when you were on vacation in another state? Could our lives have intersected, somehow, somewhere, without our knowledge? </p>

<p>These are the kind of questions that have struck me more on multiple occasions in calc class. Who is that one in a million? Where is she? Has she even been born yet?! Will we meet? When? Perhaps most pressing is why we meet. </p>

<p>Do we meet because we were preordained to do so? Or do we meet as a result of our own free wills leading us to an accidental intersection? Could there be a certain inexplicable attraction between us - such as gravity, but stronger - that leads us to the right place at the right time? This sounds possible. I think I may have even experienced this force in the halls and stairwells of my school. Or perhaps, this force can be chalked up to mere sampling error, confirmation bias, and luck. </p>

<p>These questions are maddening because they have no answer, but yet they are so satisfying in the confines of calc class, precisely because they have no answer; they give me something to chew over - something to drown out the teacher's lecturing. Nevertheless, I do continually wonder about that one in a million, and where she is, and what she's eating, who she's hanging out with, and so forth. Of course, this is all subject to her being alive - hey - she could still have yet to be conceived . . . and NO - don't you ever underestimate me :p! </p>

<p>Disclaimer: I wrote this at 2 in the morning. I did not proofread. I was not aiming for poetic brilliance either. I also realize that I may sound half-crazed in this post. So be it. Good night.</p>

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<p>In China, you can find about 1300 people that are one in a million.
LOL. I know you are talking about another thing, but I was joking.</p>

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<p>LOL … if my calculations are right, there are 1.3 billion people in China, right?</p>

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<p>Yep, you are right.</p>

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<p>those thoughts seem a little carried away. sounds to me like you just need * someone* and some experiences. then those longing thoughts won’t occupy you anymore hopefully (though maybe they will be replaced by other thoughts).</p>

<p>i do relate to the part about thinking about all the lives going around you, of the people you know and don’t know, and you just being one of these humans on a patch of earth, waiting at the bus stop or in class or whatever, but none of that ‘one-in-a-million person for you’ part.</p>

<p>the best companions we could hope for are probably neither so perfect or so rare. the ideal(?) or romantic notion that perfect has to be rare or something just seems wrong to me.</p>

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<p>This topic is interesting. I love questions like this</p>

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<p>IceQube you always have the deepest, most sincere, thoughtful posts!</p>

<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC</p>

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<p>My husband is almost 9 years older than I am, so when I was a senior in high school, he was 25! We figured out that he visited my hometown (from halfway across the country) when I was 13. It wouldn’t have been legal for us to date if we had met then! He ended up taking the circuitous route to starting his adult life, so we met when he came back to grad school (I had gone straight through). So you never know where your one and only is. We’ve been married 26 years now. I used to wonder the same thing at your age, though!</p>

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<p>Probably commonly heard now,</p>

<p>But have you wondered what that person you will marry is doing right now?</p>

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<p>Thank you (:!!</p>

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<p>I think there’s more than one in a million people who you could marry and have an amazing relationship with. More like 1 in a thousand in my opinion.
Anyway, I haven’t really thought about it like that, maybe because I don’t want or expect to meet my future husband until I’m a lot older. Learning from my mum’s mistakes :)</p>

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<p>But wouldn’t you want to be happy in a passionate marriage rather than produce tons of children in a loveless, acquaintance-level marriage? I’m not saying that you can’t become close to someone who you’ve married through arranged marriage, but it’s more likely for two people to be truly in love when they marry the person of their choice.</p>

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<p>Well, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t want to married to a friend, I’d want to be married to a best friend and a lover. And I believe if you really love someone you’ll still be in love after 10 years. Doesn’t necessarily have to be passionate. But there is a difference between loving someone and liking someone.</p>

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<p>I’d like to personally extend my thanks for bringing AP Stat into my discussion.</p>

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<p>Bingo! </p>

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<p>Wow that must have been so odd - in a good way, of course! When you were 13 he would have been nearly 22 … but if you had met then, you two probably wouldn’t have fully appreciated each other.</p>

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<p>^HAHAHAHAHA thanks for reminding me of that awesome song. </p>

<p>Now that song is going to be on repeat for the next three hours.</p>

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<p>How is it only one in a million? To say something like that means that there is only one in one million people you can love. I find that rather ridiculous. I love lots of people. My friends, my family, the guy who walks around in a pink skirt and tight shirt. Love is endless and it extends to nearly everyone I know. Not only that, but I don’t believe that there is only one. I think someone has an infinite number of people they could spend the ret of their life with. It just happens that some people find one and they stick with it because that “one” is perfectly acceptable to them. If not, then they divorce/break up and continue searching. There is always someone who will love you and who you can love too, but it’s just the searching that tires us out and makes us settle. Love is not a one time thing; it happens every day and sometimes, it just works out.
/rant. Lol. Sorry…</p>

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<p>Yeah, sometimes I wonder what the person I will eventually marry is doing at the moment haha :)</p>

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<p>I say one in a million partly as a figure of speech. I also say one in a million to signify the other’s significance; you don’t tell your other that she is just an ordinary person - you’d probably tell them that they’re special, or irreplaceable, or something saccharine like that. I finally say one in a million because it does feel like that; it does feel like chance has the overwhelming role - our circumstances were so odd - but I digress. Plus, my sample size of one is hardly significant ;). </p>

<p>Ah. Here lays the problem. Our definitions of “love” are both valid, but different. We should all love each other as brothers and sisters. There shouldn’t be a city of brotherly love, nor a country of brotherly love, but a world of brotherly love.</p>

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<p>We perhaps do, but given our physical limitations - we can only be in one place at one time - we can only go to one college at a time - we can only be in one library at one time - we can only be on one internet dating site at one time (wait, really, LOL?) … we’re severely constrained. This makes me wonder too - how would things have turned out if I had just lingered around in Starbucks for 5 minutes longer? What if I went to that section of the library instead of this section? The possibilities are endless, and that’s why I simultaneously love and despise this question; although there is no answer, it does provide something to lucubrate over.</p>

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<p>I like looking at the moon and thinking that my “significant other” is looking at the same moon too.</p>

<p>cheesy, I know, but it’s nice to know he’s out there :D</p>