The ‘Cute Girl on the Subway’ Syndrome

This being my first post, let me introduce myself. I’m not going to tell you anything that isn’t already listed on my about page, so this is only a formality. My name is Anton Tsvilikhovskiy. I am 17, and a Senior in High School. I am a musician, a programmer, an atheist, a web designer, and a writer. I’m mostly going to be writing about my thoughts, opinions, and musings. Hopefully I can catch your interest, and if I do, leave a comment or email me. Anyway, onto the post.

Most of you may be looking at the title, and may have a good guess at what it means, others may be confused. Let me clear things up, by telling you about something that happened to me a year ago that has stuck to me quite strongly for some reason. Around a year ago I was in New York City, to be honest with you I don’t even remember why I was in the city at the time. In any case, I was going out for a walk at night, and after a while, I thought I would take the Staten Island Ferry for a ride. I sat down in the open-air area, where I could see the bay at night. The temperature was comfortable and I could not have been more relaxed. There was a seat facing me; not uncomfortably close, but not completely closed off either. A gorgeous girl, who looked to be about my age walked in and sat in it.

She would shyly avoid my glances as I would avoid hers. All I could think about was striking up a conversation with her, but alas I am not the forward type, so I was equally shy and evasive. Eventually the ferry stopped and neither of us saw each other again.

I’ll bet something similar to this has happened to all of you. Maybe somebody on line in a shop, or the cashier, or someone you see on your daily route, or once in a lifetime. Although it happened to me on a ferry, I call it the “Cute Girl on the Subway” syndrome because it has happened to me more often on the subway, and I think more people can relate to that too.

What I’m really trying to convey, is the incredibly fragile idea of fate, and the strong impact of relationships on it. In my terms, a relationship is any interaction between two human beings that both parties are aware of. This is vague, but only because I want to demonstrate how even a vague relationship can change your life. For example, a glance at a stranger, and the next time you see them will queue a “Have I seen you somewhere before?” These kind of relationships are the bases of more complex relations. Let’s say I did talk to the cute girl on the ferry; What if we hit it off? What if we exchanged numbers (unlikely, I know, but run with me here.) She could become a best friend, maybe even a lover. What if it went sour? What if she hated me, or thought I was a creep? And if she was indifferent, and completely uninterested? Her reaction to my interaction creates a huge base for whatever is going to happen next, and has the power to bend fate at any angle, in any direction.

Think about how you met your significant other, your best friend, or your enemies. It’s not 100% guaranteed that you meet your love under the most perfect conditions and fall in love at first sight; It could have been when you were shopping for toothpaste. You probably didn’t meet your best friend and knew right away that you would get along with them. The fact of the matter is that these relationships, and their general alignments (positive or negative) are very unpredictable, and slightly unstable. If your significant other is unfaithful, then the nature of the relationship will obviously change, as well as a huge part of your life. Your time-line, your ‘Fate’, isn’t driven by divine intervention, it isn’t open like a book for fortune tellers to read. It is a complex network of people’s actions and how they affect you. It is only slightly in your control, and in the control of the people you interact with.

All images from sxc.hu (the stock.xchng)

• Eye Image
• Subway Image