My "Small World" Life Strikes Again!

Maybe it's because I grew up in a small town environment...but even now that I am venturing further and further into the "big world" I am loving what a SMALL word we live in.

I was just about the first one to show up to work yesterday and as people trickled in it still felt pretty empty--not much chatter on a Monday morning. But the first thing that was said to me most definitely brought a smile to my face as I knew the conversation could only get better... "So you know Kyle Burns?"

When the name Kyle Burns comes up...I know things are going to get interesting. Kyle worked with me during my first summer at GSP as a fellow RA. The best way I can describe why we connected so easily is to tell you that one of the first things we learned about each other was that we had a couple of mutual friends: Steve Hanson and Tommy Antony--as in my Man Clan friends that I have been hanging out with since I was a Bellarmine freshman. So I suppse when he realized I hung out with the likes of those guys, he decided that I was a decent girl...decent enough for him to immediately begin finding ways to give me crap constantly.

I have only seen Kyle once since our six weeks of GSP together and that was very brief. Amazingly enough, though, Kyle seems to always know me oh-so-well and we always seem to cross paths somehow. I have met his cousin, Amanda, who was Steve's high school girlfriend--the reason Kyle knows the Man Clanians. And this past Spring Break he went to Florida with Dani's best friend from high school, Katherine, whom I have also met.

As it turns out, my coworker, David, and Kyle grew up together and have been best friends their entire lives! As I talked with David about how I knew Kyle I also learned that he too knows Steve and Tommy! In fact--Steve, Kyle and David all spent 4th of July weekend together!

My small world story does not stop there, though! Of course I needed to make mine and David's friendship "official" and add him on Facebook and the first thing I did was check to see who all of our mutual friends were. Several Bellarmine folk from the NKY didn't surprise me, nor did Casey Countians who'd attended EKU since that is where David went to college. The name that did surprise was none other than the cousin: IAN ADKINS!

Now, obviously I know that Ian grew up and went to high school in Richmond and EKU is in Richmond, but during the years that David would have attended EKU, Ian was here in Louisville at Bellarmine. I got to the bottom of it this morning, and, of course, there was a mutual friend between David and Ian at Bellarmine. (Whom I actually worked in the residence life office with my freshman year.)

To top off all of this crazy small world business, apparantly through knowing Ian my coworker, David Hobbs, rented out Auntie Joanie's 4th Street apartment while still living in Richmond!

David whom I met last week at my new job, Kyle whom I met two years ago when working together as RAs for GSP, and Steve whom I have been friends with since running track with him at BU as a freshman, have all known each other since their high school days in Northern Kentucky.