Sometimes you never know what the day will bring
I had a very surreal experience on Friday, and of course there is a TED Talk that aligns to this, but we'll get to that later. I was waiting in the Library for my tutoree to come and a guy came up to talk to me. He did look vaguely familiar but I couldn't work it out, until he mentioned Wollongong and an ex-boyfriend of mine (we'll call him DJ since they are his initials). It was Mark, one of DJ's friends, and part of a group that I spent a bit of time with from 18-21 years.
For those of you who aren't really familiar with Hobart, it is the capital of Tasmania, an island State of Australia. The State has a population around half a million people, with greater Hobart having about 200,000 of these. So bumping into anyone that I know from my life prior to Tasmania is unlikely, bumping into someone I haven't seen for almost 20 years is extremely weird - but all of this is not the surreal part.The surreal part was what came next. Mark explained that I had an important role in his past, which astounded me because I've tended to think of myself as a rather forgettable person. He proceeded to tell me that I was the first person he had ever met who dared to say "Jesus does not exist" - he was initially shocked and appalled at this. From this he set about questioning his upbringing in a Christian Brothers school and indoctrination to the church - and eventually became an atheist.I was gob-smacked by this declaration, I would never have thought that I would have had a role in opening someone's world and giving them the nudge to revisit their beliefs - although I am quite proud of the role that I played. Do not take this the wrong way, I've never set about to turn anyone away from religion, I'm proud of the fact that I opened his mind to the concept that there are other ways of thinking and other opinions.And now the TED TalkThis made me think of Drew Dudley's Everyday leadership, which is a talk that I really enjoyed. I've always thought that it's very true that a person can have an impact on others that they are completely unaware of, and that is positive and negative. This is one of the reasons I try be a little more thoughtful when dealing with people, but I still fail too often for my liking.I know that there are a lot of people that have had impacts on my life that I am certain they are completely unaware of. When I was writing letters last year I let a few people know the influence they have had, I never once imagined that someone would say this to me.Watch Drew's talk, it is only one of the short one's, and think about whether there is anyone who has influenced your life that you could let know. It's a buzz to find this sort of stuff out - thank you for sharing it with me Mark.