Butterflies, Boomerangs, and Expecting the Unexpected

Put yourself out into the world. You might be pleasantly surprised at what comes back.

Photo by Owen Beard on Unsplash

I never expected that a single sentence, written on a post of a Facebook group three years ago, would lead to a writing job that would change my life.

But it did.

It was improbable– but then again, I’ve never really believed in probability. When I was taking Probability & Statistics in high school, I remember being unable to wrap my brain around this concept of “probability,” or how “likely” something was to happen.

“If there are 5 blue marbles and 2 red marbles in a bag, what is the probability that a red marble will be drawn?”

I suppose you could do the math, and discover that the probability is lower for drawing a red marble than a blue marble, but the real question is: What does probability even matter to the person who draws the red marble?

I mean, the probability is low that you’ll win the lottery, but what if you do?

The probability is low that you’ll ever be struck by lightning, but do you think that matters to someone who’s been struck?

How many times in your life have you witnessed something that, if you crunched the numbers, would be considered highly improbable, and yet it…