Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Funny Thing Happened

I don't think I am all that memorable of a person. I think beyond my name, really loud laugh (you love it or hate it), and...??? Okay I really cant think of anything else. What I am trying to say is that I think I am pretty average.

There were 400+ people in my high school graduating class, with all that competition I am always shocked when people remember me especially since I left town and only came back home for holidays for 15 years. Seriously I didn't participate in school organizations or groups and my only goal was to get through the 4 years to get to college.

It wasn't overly shocked when I ran into someone I went to high school with at the cell phone store yesterday.

What was shocking was that I didn't know this person. I truly have no idea her name or even if I knew her from high school. Based on our conversation I am guessing that's how she knows me. 

She was even shocked that I was still living in the area because she knew me well enough to know I left town after high school. And because I am a nice person I briefly talked to the woman about what I had been doing since high school. I must have been convincing, my coworker was shocked when I told her "I have no idea who that was."

I never asked her name. She seemed to remember me very well and I didn't want to say, "Lady I have no idea why you know me." That would have been really rude...but I really wanted to say it.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from blurting out, "And you are...?"

Now I am wondering is there a polite way of saying, "I am sorry but you are so unremarkable that after 20 years 10 years I don't remember you. In fact you don't even look familiar to me at all." 

17 comments:

  1. I've had that happen before. It's great when you're with someone because you can intro your friend and hopefully get their name out of it.

    "Oh, this is my friend Samantha, we're just out shopping today."
    And that usually leads to the person saying, "Hi, Samantha, I'm Beth."

    Been there!

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  2. I have no idea how to tackle that one alone. I went to my 20th HS reunion with a girlfriend and I would tap her and whisper "okay who was that?"

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    1. There is no way I could go to my High School reunion. I would just walk around smiling and talking to people whos names I didnt remember.

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  3. I had this happen to a friend i was with at target.. She could not remember this girls name at the time. WHen she finally remember we looked her up on facebook and the girl had unfriended her.. opps. #commenthour

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  4. This happens to me all the time unfortunately. My parents know EVERYONE in town and I also use to work at a very busy credit union, so even 5 years later, I'm running into people all the time that know me by name and other than SOMETIMES thinking they look vaguely familiar, I'm usually going "Who the heck is this!?!?" through the entire conversation. So annoying. #commenthour

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    1. I moved away right after high school and was gone for almost 13 years it always amazes me people still remember.

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  5. LOL, been there, it's hard to say um, who are you again? But at least you pulled it off even though you had no idea!

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    1. I should have been nominated for an Ocar after that performance. lol

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  6. In the psuedo-celebrity status of being a teacher at a large high school this has happened to me quite often with former students. It breaks my heart because I know that if I had them as students I knew them very well. However, oftentimes friends of my former students know who I am also. So sometimes it is completely valid that I do not know who this person (after over 13 years they're grown ups now!), while other times it leads to loads of guilt! I don't think I've found a smooth way to deal with this, but I just keep talking like crazy until the moment is passed! :P

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    1. That was my plan to just fake it. i was hoping she would say something that would give me a clue to her identity but I still have no idea.

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  7. I'm terrible with names anyway so I always use the "I'm sorry, I recognize you but you name is escaping me at the moment. I'm truly horrible with names." Usually they say something like "Oh that's fine. It's xxxx." My response is always like "Oh I was thinking xxx (something really close) but I knew it was wrong!"

    Visiting you from #CommentHour :)

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    1. Sarah..I love that. I am going to do that next time.

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  8. I live across country from where I grew up so I don't usually run into people I know. I do occasionally run into people who think they know me but don't know my name and we go through the 'where did you work' routine. I swear I have a doppelganger because I once was on a college campus that I didn't go to and had this guy come up and start talking to me, really going on and on. I finally had to stop him and tell him I had no idea who he was. He said "You're Stephani from English class." and I said "No, I don't even go to this school I was just visiting a friend." He couldn't believe it, he said I looked just like her. Would have been interesting to have met her to see if I thought I looked like her.

    Sorry about the ramble. :)
    Peace,
    Morgan

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    1. I know I have a doppelganger some where and her name is also Michael but she spells it different. I have never meet her but people use to tell me about her all the time. She lived in another town about an hour away from the town I lived in when I went to college.

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  9. I do the same thing as Not a Baker. Sometimes I am remember things too well. I friended my high school crush on Facebook. He probably doesn't remember me, but accepted my request because we went to the same HS *lol*

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