Some people grow up and live all of their days in a village of five hundred or a thousand people. They have dozens of possible mates. They spend their years bumping into the same people and waiting for the desired connection to occur. Finding someone to grow old with in a small pond is an exercise in acceptance. The world is a small place and therefore some unspoken concessions will be necessary. Finding a suitable mate is certainly possible but finding a soulmate seems more like a fairy tale.

Other people grow up and live all of their days in a bustling metropolis of five hundred thousand or a million people. They have thousands of possible partners to choose from. They spend their years cycling through a myriad of human combinations and permutations while waiting for the perfect match to occur. Finding someone to grow old with in a large sea offers more choices but now adds the element of chance since the population is so large. With this many people it is possible to pass within inches of your perfect soulmate without ever knowing it. Finding a soulmate becomes a fairy tale of “meeting odds” rather than possible options.

You two, dear Emily and Daisy, grew up and have been living your days as citizens of Planet Earth. Not content to be mere villagers or even city dwellers, you both chose to live an international life. Eight billion people is a rather large population to sieve, sift, and sort through; but you are both patient, meticulous, and lucky. You had millions of humans to wade through while seeking out your soulmates. The numbers guaranteed that there was a perfect match waiting for you, while at the same time they essentially prevented you from finding each other.

Let’s set aside a trillion tiny decisions in the years leading up to your meeting in Mexico. Don’t forget the trillion tiny decisions—recognize the unbelievable mathematical odds that dropped you both in Mexico at the same time—and then set that universe of probability aside so we can focus on the weekend.

Imagine the power that each of your random taxi drivers in Mexico had over your lives today—showing up an hour earlier or later could have kept you from meeting the way you did. Deciding to get drinks from one bar instead of another could have altered everything. What if your rooms were ready right away instead of having to wait? What if getting a churro at the cart took 3 minutes longer. What if you turned right, instead of left?

Thank the odds, you are together today because you did not. In a world of eight billion souls, where our trillions of decisions randomize our well organized lives, you two citizens of Planet Earth managed to find each other in a tequila soaked, foreign corner of the world. At some point, you turned left, and the momentum you each brought to that unfathomably random meeting changed your lives forever. You might be the luckiest people I know.