What Are The Odds?

A life statistic to ponder.

In 5th grade, I had my first class on the “birds and the bees” at school. 

Of all the diagrams I had seen and all the new vocabulary, there was absolutely one thing that struck me.

I was in complete amazement that I had been born.

For me to exist, the timing had to be perfect, as the exact egg was released and met with the exact one out of millions and millions of sperm to come together to create me. And then, what about all the other people who could have been made in that moment who were not me and did not get the chance that I had?

Remembering this recently, I asked AI…

What are the odds of your parents creating you?

“The odds of your parents creating you are astronomically small, often estimated to be in the range of "one in billions" or even "one in trillions" due to the vast number of potential sperm and egg combinations, coupled with the complex factors involved in conception and successful pregnancy, making your existence statistically highly improbable.” 

Now consider all the events that also had to occur in history over thousands of years, at just the right moment, with just the right people, and it makes the odds even more incomprehensible. 

And yet here we are, experiencing the “highly improbable.”

Let’s remember this on a bad day, or during an embarrassing experience, or in a heated moment. We beat the odds!  

Maybe it will make us more grateful. 

Maybe it will make us more forgiving. 

Maybe it will inspire us to do great and courageous things!

How am I spending this incredible gift? 

Cheers to your life today! You truly are one in a billion!