Reconnecting
Last week I met an old college buddy. I wanted to turn it into a great story about how I first discovered that she was at the STAREAST conference by using Jambo. But alas, she didn’t bring a laptop, and I actually got the tip about her coming before the conference. It’s still an interesting series of events.
I met Hyon-Chin while studying at the University of North Texas. We both joined Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity. We lost touch after we graduated, and she changed her name after she got married. Several years later, we both had moved to the same city. We were unaware that we were both there until she saw me at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. She gave me a business card, which had her married name. We swapped a few emails, and then didn’t contact each other for a few years.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I’m monitoring the Jambo subscriptions for the STAREAST conference, and I see Hyon-Chin’s name flash by on the list. I only recognize her because I remember her new last name from our chance meeting earlier. But I don’t recognize her email address. So I contact her, and make sure it’s her. Sure enough, she’s doing the same kind of work I am now, and she’s going to the same conference in Florida that I’m going to. We promise to meet while we’re there.
It was great seeing a familiar face, and now I have another local testing contact. Would we have run into each other at the conference anyway? There’s a good chance she would have seen me when I was on the stage introducing Jambo, or that I would have seen her walking by from the strategic vantage point of Jambo’s booth. But I can still thank Jambo for it, because I wasn’t planning to attend the conference until we decided to do the beta test for Jambo there.
I’m fascinated how tenuous the string of events was, how I happened to learn her new name, which then connected me to her new email address when I had no way to contact her, and then meeting after we’ve both flown halfway across the country.