Chance Meetings, Machines, and Missed Opportunities

Doing the grocery was not part of my to-do list today. However, the opportunity to do so presented itself while I was in a mall that I rarely frequent. While I was at it, I saw somebody that I know who I haven't seen in a long time.

Why is this chance meeting significant, you ask? Because I have always believed that when you meet people by chance and you haven't seen or heard from them from the longest time, the Universe is trying to tell you something through that person. It might sound weird but I think that during the time that both of you haven't seen each other, they've learned new things about life which you could learn through them. Sometimes, in an interesting way, it's the other way around. You may have a message to tell them; a life lesson they could learn from you.

There are no such things as "chance" meetings. Hugo Cabret eloquently put it:

"I'd imagine the whole world as one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too."

That goes for being in the right place at the right time with an old acquaintance. Unfortunately, my socially-awkward self got to the best of me. I paid my items and left the grocery without uttering a single word. What could I have learned from that person? What could that person have learned from me? I will never know because I missed the opportunity.