On the topic of serendipity

Serendipity. Not the most common of words. I only learnt it some 6-7 years ago when I was in graduate school in the States. It was my social anthropology professor who used it in class when he was telling the story of an anthropologist in history who had made a random but all the same a very exciting discovery without even having been looking for it. My professor, Prof. C., had to pause his story to tell the class what the word meant as I believe almost everyone in the room, including my American native English speaking class mates, looked questioning at him when he had the described the anthropologist’s pleasant discovery as pure serendipity, quite the serendipitous moment. I remembered that moment in class, scribbling down the word in my notebook the way I guessed it should be spelled, I think got it right (!), and rolled it over my tongue. I loved that word - Serendipity.