Everyday, we pass strangers on the streets, walk past people in school hallways, and walk away from conversations without realizing how different our lives could have unfolded if one moment had lasted a little longer. And somewhere in the world right now, there’s someone you could one day fall in love with, someone who understands you in ways no one else can, someone whose personality and way of seeing the world would fit almost perfectly with yours. 

This concept is what forms the basis of soulmates: the belief that certain people are destined for one another. Yet, the chances of actually meeting them are very low. Whether or not you believe in soulmates, it is hard to ignore the possibility that somewhere out there, there is a person who would be the perfect match for you, but because of timing, distance, or circumstance, you may never meet them at all. They might be in another country, speaking another language, living a life that will never meet with yours. 

In fact, someone actually tried to answer this idea scientifically by asking the hypothetical question: ‘‘What if everyone actually had only one soulmate somewhere in the world?’’. Randall Monroe, an American author and former NASA roboticist explored this concept in his What If  book using probability and statistics. According to his calculations, the average person only meaningfully meets 50,000 strangers throughout their lifetime, despite having a potential soulmate pool of 500 million people close to their age. Statistically, this would give a person only about a: 1/10,000 chance of ever meeting their soulmate at all. 

Then again, that idea assumes that people stay the same forever. People are constantly changing as they grow older, gain experience, and move through different moments of their lives. The version of you that exists today has different needs, priorities, desires than the version of you that will exist in 10 or 20 years from now. This means that even if you did meet someone who could have been perfect for you, it might happen at the wrong time. You could meet your soulmate at 50, when both of your lives are already built around other people. Or maybe you already have passed them in the hallways without noticing. Maybe it is that one classmate sitting across from you in class, someone who means nothing to you now, but in 20 years later, could have been everything.

Some people might argue that this is pointless and just another form of overthinking. There is no ‘‘perfect’’ person waiting somewhere in the world. But the same randomness that may have kept you from meeting certain people is also the exact thing that brought you to others: the friends you have now and the people you love. We do continue to pass strangers on the streets, walk past people in hallways, and walk away from conversations. And yet, that uncertainty is what makes every interaction and relationship valuable: out of all the people we could have met, somehow we still found each other.