Small World

As I have been getting to know people in my new ward I have found out that I have some connections with some of them. On Wednesday one of them brought a photo that she had of me from a youth conference when I was 15 yr. old. One family has a brother that was the high priest assigned to my old ward and the wife grew up with one of my college roommates. A member of our bishopric and the primary pres. who are married to each other used to live in Linz which is where I served my mission for about 5 mths. We never met but we know many of the same people. Of course some people know my dad from when the stake had larger boundaries a long time ago. Through Facebook I found out that a couple of my friends grew up here and we share friends now. I'm sure it will just keep on coming too.
One thing that the one with the photo of me said was when she showed the picture to her son after she found it. She explained how we met over 15 years ago and must have become friends. She told him that he needs to be nice to people he meets because they might just show up again years down the road. That made me laugh at first but then I really started thinking about it. What if I had left a bad impression on these connections I have? What if I would have been rude to her and she had this photo of me that she drew a mustache on and stuck pins threw the eyes? How awkward would that have been? What if my roommate thought I was crazy and now this friend in my ward is hearing all these wild stories about me and starts spreading it around? You get the point. Well, hopefully nothing like that is the case.
I have decided though that throughout the rest of my life the world will probably continue to get smaller and smaller so I need to make sure I am always keeping myself in check. I mean, if people are going to find out that they both know me, I want them to say something good about me. I don't want my name being tarnished. "Oh, Sarah Bullock, yeah she eats boogers." "Oh I remember her. Her clothes were always too tight." "She always had a filthy mouth." No Way! I want "Yeah, she was always so sweet." "That girl cracks me up." "I always wanted her to marry my brother so we could be sisters." That's the kind of stuff I want said about me.
The End