potential new friends and an invitation

Today I visited my local Borders to buy the latest volume of a manga I love. While I was there, I spotted the graphic novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and, since I love Austen, sat down with a copy to see how Marvel had adapted the classic. As I was skimming the highlights of the adaptation, a woman sat next to me and looking at the book I was holding.
"Oh! You're reading Austen!" She said. I agreed that I was, although I amended that it was a graphic novel adaptation and not the original. She introduced herself as a member of the Jane Austen Society and invited me to attend their meetings. Apparently her group maintains a sort of book club in which they meet once a month. One meeting they will discuss an Austen novel, the next they will watch a film adaptation, and the next they discuss fanfiction for that novel. Interesting. I think I might go.
But it did get me thinking about how sometimes what seems like a chance encounter or an ordinary conversation becomes something more. When we meet people and start to get to know them, it opens up potential friendships and experiences.
I hope I will attend. And I hope that the experience will allow me to meet people and have interesting conversations and try something new. But besides that, I'm just really glad to have met this woman and talked with her. We probably only talked for 10 minutes or so, but the conversation meant a lot to me. She didn't give me life-changing advice or tell me what to do, but she was very warm and encouraging. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I do want to go to the Jane Austen Society and, while I do enjoy Jane Austen, it's because I want to meet and talk to new friends.