Serendipity

Gabriela Fernandez
Sep 4, 2018 · 6 min read

After a full day of class, work and responsibilities, every part of me wanted to bail on Drew. He was a nice guy — or at least I thought he could be. I had just met him the previous weekend at my best friend Josh’s fraternity house. Surrounded by strobe lights and ping pong balls skidding across the beer-soaked floor, he approached Josh and me and introduced himself. I should not have been surprised when just a couple of days later my phone buzzed with an unrecognized number on it asking if I wanted to go to date dash, but I was. I screenshotted the messages and sent them to Josh, looking for an excuse not to go; he told me to stop being Grandma Gabby.

“You should just go even if I’m not going. Just live a little,” he said.

Just. Live. A. Little. Those words repeated themselves over and over in my head as I resisted the urge to send Drew a raincheck. When my last meeting was over, I rushed home to throw together a Western-themed outfit. I checked my phone as I wiggled into brown boots, and I saw I was already a half hour late to the pre-game.

Crap. I called an Uber as I scrambled to put my keys and credit card in the pockets of my shorts.

When I walked into Drew’s living room, I noticed that most people were out of theme, making me feel like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, where she’s dressed as a bunny when everyone else is in their normal clothes. Since I was late, the attendees were already trickling out one by one, ready to head to the fraternity house to leave for the date dash. The only people left were me, Drew, his friend Christian, and Christian’s date, Rachel. Just as I was about to comment on how sober I felt compared to everyone else, Rachel turned her gaze to me, pointed to her Marilyn Monroe flask and said, “I’ve got Marilyn tonight. We’re good!”

A long line of baby-faced drunk college kids was already waiting outside of the bar in Hollywood, as they flashed their fake ID’s to bouncers for entry. I realized then that while I was rushing to put my cowgirl outfit together, I forgot my fake on my desk. “Oh well,” I thought as a bouncer used a black Sharpie to draw two thick X’s over both of my hands. While vodka heavy drinks gave crowds of attendees the confidence to sing “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers at the top of their lungs, Drew, Rachel, Christian and I were standing in line at the bar to get our own.

“Here! Have some of mine,” Rachel said as she lifted her vodka cranberry up to my lips, knowing I couldn’t order one with the X’s on my hands. I was just about to take a sip, when a security guard lunged forward in between us.

“Does she have a wristband?”

“Uh…no.”

“Sorry. She can’t drink unless she has a wristband.”

I felt my cheeks flush red with embarrassment, but Rachel grabbed my hand and said, “We’ll be secretive!”

When the security guards weren’t looking, she’d hide me behind Christian and Drew so I could drink with them. The alcohol only made us giddier and giddier — two strangers enjoying each other’s company as if we were the last two people on earth. Our dates joked that we got along so well, it’s as if we were each other’s dates. From yelling Blink 182 songs arm in arm to skipping away to the bathroom to fix our hair and outfits and to take shots out of Marilyn, we probably seemed like your stereotypical friendly drunk girls — complimenting everyone we saw and all.

“I like you! We should hang out in like real life,” Rachel said as we got on the bus to head back to USC. I nodded in agreement as we exchanged numbers, thinking back to all the ephemeral relationships I’ve had with other girls I met at parties.

“Yes! We’ll totally hang,” I said, my words slurred together, wondering if that was a half truth too.

It has been a year since that fall night and I often wonder how different my life would be if I had changed any of the decisions I made. If I had decided to let sleep win. If I had brought my fake ID. If I never had gone to Josh’s house the night Drew introduced himself to me.

Every morning, as the sun peeks its way into my windows and I shut off my sixth alarm in a row, I roll over and see my best friend Rachel across the room from me, who is also shutting off her sixth alarm in a row. Call it serendipity, the “faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident,” but if any of that night were to have fallen under any other circumstances, I would have missed out on meeting my roommate and more importantly, one of the greatest friends I’ve ever had.

I could have never guessed our friendship would outlive our relationships with both Christian and Drew. I could have never guessed that the same hands that passed me a Marilyn Monroe flask would be the same ones that wrapped around my shoulders when anxiety attacks engulfed my body and I felt as if I could do nothing about it. I could have never guessed that the same girl who sneakily gave me sips of her cranberry vodka would be the one to remind me that it’s okay to indulge in chocolate chip cookies every once in a while and to remember to choose sleep on a daily basis.

This story would have made a 180 degree turn if it was a tale of romantic discovery found between me and Drew on our first date. Yes, love may be made famous from soul mates finding each other in Nicholas Sparks’s novels and films. Love hits us in our souls when we listen to certain playlists and when we see cute old couples holding hands together. But a soul mate can most definitely be the person you met at a fraternity date party you were unsure of wanting to attend in the first place.

Transferring to USC was for me, jumping into a pool of many unknowns. Along with being a first generation college student unsure of how to navigate the complexities that come with a university campus, the idea of being incredibly alone for the first time in my life terrified me. Growing up with four older brothers meant that I already had built-in friends. The mere concept of being alone was quite foreign. I also walked the same cliffside trails, attended the same sleepovers and shared secrets with the same girls I met when I was eleven years old. Having to start from square one with people who did not already know about a decade’s worth of my mannerisms startled me.

Rachel says that I happened to pop into her life when she needed a girlfriend the most. Having just gone through an intense break up with her boyfriend of over three years, she felt rejected and alone. Somehow, the right place and the right time happened to be the same for the both of us.

Now that I know her so well, it’s that I could never see her as being rejected or alone. Her bubbly personality could make someone who’s having the worst day of their life light up with a gentle kind of happiness you’d think only old friends or family would know how to tap into. Even when she has over committed herself to volunteer activities, extra work shifts, and social gatherings, any stress crowding her thoughts does not make its way to her face. Constantly surrounded by friends, our apartment is always lively with the welcoming sound of laughter. Her loyalty and selflessness stretches beyond measure.

She is my biggest support system and there is not a doubt in my mind that she does the same for others. A few months ago, I found out my father suffered from a stroke, resulting in several brain injuries. When I told Rachel, she immediately left her class to buy me lemonade and sat with me in silence. Somehow, she knows when I’m upset even when I feel as if the smile on my face could fool just about anyone. Social theorists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor might call this stable exchange, which is when two people know each other on the deepest level possible.

We’re both in the same organization, Women and Youth Supporting Each Other. During introductions at the beginning of the fall semester, my friends Izma and Jay approached me after our meeting and were surprised at how alike we sounded.

“I know you guys are roommates, but you guys talk exactly the same. I thought you spoke twice, Gabby!”

Stable exchange. I wish I was more like her though.

Maybe us meeting really was luck or serendipity at its finest. Maybe we would’ve met each other at different points in our college career. There are a lot of maybes, but I am for sure, most certainly glad that on that fall night I decided to take Josh’s advice to just “live a little” because if I hadn’t, I don’t know if I would’ve found my better half.