The theme of this party was Masquerade Ball - I wasn't able to buy a mask, so I brought a fancy hat I had from Halloween, and made my own mask from a cereal box...it was a poor attempt but I had a mask!
I met some really interesting and special people at this party, I spoke in French, Portuguese and English, drank a few glasses of red wine, ate quite a lot of food and also danced a lot.
The party started at 20.30 and the atmosphere was so awesome throughout the whole evening that it lasted until 6am!
C'etait super!
Afterwards, when I was cycling home at 6.30am, I started thinking about how random it was that I was invited to this party...and also how lucky I was because I really liked all the people I met there and realised that if it wasn't for certain situations and connections that happened since my arrival in Lyon, I wouldn't have been there, and wouldn't have met those people.
So, I decided I was going to write down the pathway that led me to be invited and to attend this party, and here I am doing this...
Before though, I'll make a few points just in case you are wondering:
- I am not religious
- I don't believe in reincarnation
- I don't believe in destiny
- I believe we make our own destiny (maybe I am slightly existentialist like Jean-Paul Sartre)
- I believe we can influence our own luck and randomness
The three important moments that happened, which resulted in me being at this house party were the following:
1. As most of you know, I moved to Lyon at the end of September and started learning French at Alliance Francaise in October. I could have picked any french school in Lyon and I could have started any month, but I decided to start in October...
In my class I met B, who became a close friend of mine. B, was only studying at Alliance for one month - October so, I think the odds of us being put together in the same class (morning class + A1N2 level) were low, but then made it possible for other connections and situations to happen afterwards.
Probability of meeting B: Medium to Low 5-10%
2. B and I then started to go to every possible party or soiree for students in Lyon and we met some great people in the process.
One evening we decided to go to a bar - the awesome Livestation DIY - close to where B lives with other friends of ours. We tried to get into this bar before but it was always packed, the first time we managed to get a table there was this specific Thursday!
After some food and a few drinks, B spotted a gorgeous man (her own words) sat behind me.
We chatted with him for maybe 10 minutes but he had to leave...When he was just about to leave the bar, B asked me if I could go and get his phone number...so I did that...to his surprise! (he thought I was interested in him!).
B got in touch with him by text afterwards so that's how we randomly connected with D.
Probability of meeting D and staying in touch with him: Very low 0.25%
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| At Livestation with the gang! D was just behind me... |
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| Jam Session at Livestation |
3. For B's birthday later that month, we went to Livestation, for drinks and cake. She invited D, and he invited his housemate P.
We had one drink at the bar and then D and P very kindly asked us if we wanted to continue the birthday celebration at their place, which was just around the corner - we said "of course", so off we went.
Their house was really cool, spacious, high ceilings, nicely decorated, a really great place to live and to have friends over.
There we met the 3rd housemate Ce there, who joined us for the birthday celebration and some Brazilian singing, dancing and chatting.
We all really enjoyed the evening and I believe we got on really well with each other.
I then asked P to add me on Facebook just before I left and a few days after he invited me to this his house party with the theme Masquerade Ball. I accepted immediately and there I went...et voila!
Probability of meeting D again and P and being invited to their party: Medium: 15%
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I do believe that we make our own luck and random moments. By this, I don't mean we do this conscientiously, however we can improve the probability of our own luck or randomness.
For example, if we keep doing the same things everyday and keep following the same routine, the probability of meeting someone knew or learning something new is very low.
Getting out of a routine, experiencing something new and getting out of our comfort zone even just once in a while, allows us to experience very random events which lead to often special moments and special people, enriching one's life.
Yes, cheesy but true, non?
Even though I don't believe in destiny, sometimes I find it weird and spooky - but truly fantastic, that I connect so strongly with some people. It sometimes feels like meeting certain people was always inevitable - even though often the events that allowed us to meet might have been the most random ever.
But the real moral of this story is: if your friend asks you to get a phone number from a random person, just do it no matter what - you might end up in an awesome house party a few weeks afterwards!!
PS: The above probabilities were calculated with a very robust software found on a poker website combined with my amazing maths skills learned from watching "Good will hunting".
Great, muito bom! Estou a gostar muito do que escreves.
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