Sheffield isn't the furthest place away from scarborough, but there is still some distance in between. It's due to this distance that when I first moved to sheffield, I thought that I wouldn't have many encounters with people I know. I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean that, by moving to somewhere over 2 hours drive from home, I wouldn't have the opportunity to bump into people I knew, just by wandering around the city centre, like back at home. However this hasn't really been the case.
A couple of weeks ago, just as I was walking to Wilkinson's in the high street, I bumped into a girl called Vanessa, who used to go to the same school as me, but a few years above. After we saw each other, we then stood in the middle of the sidewalk for about 5-10 minutes having a nice catch-up chat. A couple of weeks or so after that, another person who I used to know through my sister, called Arthur, saw me walking down the street and cycled over to me to say hello, and again have another quick catch-up.
Due to these encounters having a few weeks in between them, and that they were in different parts of Sheffield, I thought that they might just be random meetings, and wouldn't see anyone else after that. However since last weekend I'm now not that sure.
Last friday, I met my friend Matty at Sheffield train station to catch the train home. Just as we were about to get on the train, we saw our friend Meghan, who we knew from Lady Lumleys. Due to the train being so crowded we weren't able to sit together, but we did manage to have a quick chat as we got on the train. Now Meghan is studying at Sheffield Hallam, like us, so I know that makes it less of a coincidence. But it still was quite random.
In addition to this encounter, as Matty left York station, and I went to go grab my connecting train home, I then saw another person I knew from Lady lumleys. However this person I know studies at Teeside University, so is a bit further away from where I thought they'd be.
On just that one day in the space of two hours I'd seen one person from where we were, and another a fair distance away from where they study. In additions to these encounters, I then saw another person I knew from sixth form, on the sunday when I was on the train back to Sheffield.
All of these meet ups were unexpected, but still really nice. I got to see people that I haven't seen for up to two and a half years, and all because we moved away home and out into the world.
I wonder if maybe Sheffield is still too close to home. Perhaps maybe, because of how easy and cheap it is now a days to get around, the world has just become that much smaller.
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