TikTok Led Me to a Bouquet

synchronicity is more than chance

May 15, 2024

“Bryan! Is this you in this TikTok video?! You’ve gone viral!” My friend exclaimed as she shared a Tiktok video to me on iMessage.

@sabrina.ngoc im shaking lmfao #nyc #dating #single #datingadvice

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I looked at the video, “Ya, that’s the girl who hit on me in Central Park”

“Omg! This is really you! I saw this girl on TikTok talking about hitting on a guy in Central Park by asking him for a dog poop bag and going on a date with him!”

A few days later, I shared my TikTok infamy story with a friend who flew into NYC from Paris, and my friend’s eyes were bewildered.

“Wait, I just saw a viral TikTok video about a girl picking up a guy in Central Park. That’s you!?” I stared back at him, not registering how he could have seen the same video when he’s on the other side of the ocean.

At that moment, I finally understood what it means to have gone “viral”. Not me directly – I don’t have TikTok – but indirectly. What are the odds that my friends found out that I was the subject of the viral TikTok video in the billions of videos uploaded every day?

Meaning in the coincidences

Synchronicity – a term coined by psychologist godfather Carl Jung – is a singular event that cannot be explained by cause and effect, but rather by a meaningful coincidence. The story goes like this:

During a therapy session with Carl Jung, a rational patient recounted a dream in which she was given a golden scarab, a symbol of transformation. As she described her dream, Jung heard a tapping at the window and opened it to find a real scarabaeid beetle, which closely resembled the golden scarab of her dream. Handing the beetle to his patient, Jung announced, "Here is your scarab," highlighting a striking example of synchronicity. This event helped bridge the gap between the patient’s rational mind and the symbolic, deeper aspects of her psyche, enhancing her therapeutic journey

Days later, I found myself holding the most beautiful bouquet in my hand. Never had I thought I’d touch anything flower related – I thought they were a waste of money. But I found myself at this girl’s apartment, helping her produce bouquets and fulfill her hundreds of orders she’s gotten for her flower hobby business – a result of her TikTok video going viral. As I was helping cutting papers and ribbons, I listened to her backstory of why and how she started her flower business: she made flowers for herself because her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t buy her flowers, and she started making them for her friends and now the lucky moms.

Here I was – many articles on my struggle of my career and finding my passion – I was in awe of the prettiest bouquet I’ve ever seen in my life and inspired by her origin story. I was searching for those whose pursue their passions as career, and a TikTok video lead me here.

There was no way these events could have been planned out from the get-go; rather, these were randomly coincidental events brought the bouquet to my world. Synchronicity at play.

Luck – turning synchronicity to our favor

If synchronicity shows to us that coincidence may not just be random events, then is that so for luck?

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist conducting extensive research on the concept of luck, ran an experiment involving a newspaper. Participants were asked to count the number of photographs inside the newspaper. Unknown to them, the newspaper included a message partway through that read, "Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250." This message was large enough to notice easily, but only the people who self-identified as lucky typically noticed it; those who considered themselves unlucky skipped it and kept counting.

Signs and coincidences are all around us, but only those who are open can see them and bring meaning to them. We have agency and control over how much luck we have and can spot the coincidences that are meaningful and not mere random chances.

For a long time, coming from an engineering discipline where I indexed on rationalism, I’d shrugged at synchronicity and labeled them random chances. I was fixated by my own efforts – aiming after fantasies, making the most money, demanding promotions – and shut off the idea to let synchronicities, luck, and serendipity take its course. In doing so, I cut off the coincidences of luck, and, like the unlucky ones in Wiseman’s experiment, kept grinding endlessly. No wonder I ended up a machine – void of soul and the blessings of luck.

Since then I have relaxed from my hyper deterministic approach and opened up to more chances. With a work of art in my hand and listening to an inspiring story that I needed, perhaps the virality of the TikTok video was synchronicity in orchestration. No longer do I see flowers as a waste of money; instead, the beauty of the bouquet is a symbol and a catalyst for more synchronicity, serendipity, and luck, bringing smiles and unforeseeable changes to those who received them. I, too, wonder how this bouquet can open up new paths in my world. I don’t know, but at least I know I’ll bring the inspiration from its beauty wherever I go next. I just need to open up my attitudes and choices and let synchronicity take its course.