The People You Meet Without Meeting
By Ada Obiajunwa

My new favourite thing these days is waking up early, stepping onto my balcony with a cup of coffee, and just watching the world wake up. The birds start their gossip and trust me, they gossip in droves. You see them flying in their perfect little formations, not shutting up about whatever birds discuss at 6 a.m.

The sky slowly changes its mind about the night, the clouds drift like they are still half-asleep, and the air is calm enough for me to think. It is my small ritual of quiet before the day starts claiming pieces of me.

One morning, while I was out there enjoying the stillness, I noticed two cars coming from opposite directions slow down at the speed bump on the road beside my estate. Just two strangers minding their business.

One slowing down from one side, the other slowing down from the other side. They crossed paths for a split second and kept going.

And something whispered in my mind:

The fact that these two drivers have never met does not mean they are not part of each other’s journey.

And that thought stayed with me. Because that is how life works. A long road filled with people you may never shake hands with, but who shape your direction all the same.

Think about it.

The stranger who held the lift door for you when you were already late.
The teacher who liked you enough to give you confidence you still use today.
The person who annoyed you into learning patience by force.
The colleague who quit suddenly and opened a door you were not even praying for.
The neighbour whose generator noise taught you what real forgiveness looks like.

And it is not just here in Lagos.
Someone in London might remember the driver who let them merge into traffic on a stressful morning.
Someone in New York might remember the cashier whose random kindness held them together that day.
Someone in Dubai might never forget the stranger who helped them pick up a dropped item while they were juggling kids and bags.

Different corners of the world, same truth:
People you do not know shape you.

We like to believe life is shaped only by the big connections, the people we love, the people who hurt us, the people we know well. But sometimes the biggest shifts come from tiny intersections.