Meaningless Stats

Both Luke and Isaiah are currently enrolled in statistics classes. I took a stats class once, but that was in my undergrad program, so 20+ years ago. I remember a few things: the mean, the mode, and the median. If I remember correctly, the mean is the average of a group of numbers, the mode is the number that occurs most often in a series of numbers, and the median is the middle number when you list a series of numbers from lowest to highest. Does that sound right? That's how I remember it anyway.

I was thinking about statistics last week when I was joyously overwhelmed by the 40 birthday greetings I received on Facebook. Wow! Prior to Facebook, I'm not sure I knew 40 people, let alone knew them well enough that they would wish me happy birthday. It was quite delightful actually, as the day went on, and the greetings kept pouring in. I began to think about statistics. For example, from how many different states did these greetings come? Or, how many years have I known the various people who greeted me in honor of my birthday? How many were males and how many were females? Not that this makes any difference really in the grand scheme of things, but it was fun to consider the statistics. If you're curious, read on.

Location
I received birthday greetings on Facebook from nine different states. Oregon (my birthplace) tied with Montana, my current state of residence. Ten greetings came from Oregon: Tom, Nancy S., Janice, Diane, Julie, Cindy, Elisa, Guy, Shelly, and Steffany. From Montana came another ten greetings: Vern, Kaycee, Jody, Sandra, Natalie, Mandy, Annette, Colette, Jared and Teresa. Washington placed third with seven greetings: Cathy, Sherrie, Silvia, Monica, Vi, Melody, and Audrey. Utah placed a distant fourth with four greetings: Hillary, Tiffany, Patty, and Melinda. Three greetings came from Colorado: Rebecca, Susie, and Ruth Ann. Two came from Idaho: Lindsey and Rachael, and I received one greeting each from Texas (Celeste), Arizona (Nancy F.), Massachusetts (Karen), and Wisconsin (Clara).

Awards
The award for the birthday greeting from the person I've known longest goes to my brother Tom, whom I have known since I was 2 years old when he was born. On the other side, there was a 3-way tie for the greeting from the person I've known for the shortest period of time. Nancy F., Steffany, and Clara are Facebook friends whom I've not yet had the pleasure to meet in person. I say "not yet," because I sincerely hope to be able to meet all of them at some point in the future. Teresa just commented on this completed post saying, "Happy Birthday late. Do you have a category for that?" so she wins the award for the latest greeting, ten days after my birthday. My first greeting of the day came from Kaycee. Teresa also wins for the greeting that came from a location nearest to my house; she lives right around the corner. Well, maybe she ties with Natalie? Hmm. The greeting from farthest away came from Karen in Massachusetts.

Gender
The women far surpassed the men this time. Four of my 40 greetings were from men: Tom, Jared, Vern, and Guy. All the rest were from women.

Time Period
Next, I divided my birthday greetings by the time period in my life when I first met these people. I received nine greetings from friends/relatives from childhood: Shelly, Guy, Elisa, Ruth Ann, Cindy, Julie, Janice, Nancy S., and Tom. Seven greetings came from people I've known 20 - 30 years: Patty, Rebecca, Diane, Sherrie, Audrey, Monica, and Vi. Six greetings came from people I've known 10 - 20 years: Tiffany, Melody, Silvia, Cathy, Melinda, and Susie. But the winner in this category was the group of people I've met in just the past 10 years, with a whopping 18 greetings: Celeste, Rachael, Lindsey, Hillary, Vern, Kaycee, Jody, Sandra, Natalie, Mandy, Annette, Colette, Jared, Karen, Clara, Steffany, Nancy F., and Teresa.

So thank you very much, Mark Zuckerberg. This may very well seem like the most meaningless blog post I've ever written, but really, when you think about it, it isn't meaningless at all. I am richly blessed with a diverse and interestingly wonderful group of friends, and thanks to Facebook, I can connect with them at will. I am grateful.

Meaningless stats? Perhaps. But the people are far from meaningless. They are cherished.