I'm sure you've all been in this situation before. Across the room, you notice someone who you remember from your past. Maybe they were in a class with you, or you met them at a conference, or they went to your church congregation. You recognize them, and maybe even remember their name. Then you wonder, "Do they remember me?" and then you wonder whether you should go up to them and say hi or not.
For some reason, this happens to me all the time. Partly, I've known a lot of different people in my time in Salt Lake and, for the most part, us singles tend to move around a lot, so you get a chance to run into people you haven't seen in a while fairly regularly. Secondly, I enjoy getting to know people and know about them, what they do and where they are from and what not; which, in turn, helps me to remember them. Finally, I also have been blessed with a pretty good memory. Lately, my short-term memory is starting to not be quite as sharp (I find myself needing to write things down more often), but I'm still pretty good at hanging on to things once they make it into my long-term memory.
Anyway, I find myself in the situation of seeing people that I've known in the past quite often. And often times, I happen to know quite a bit about these people. I almost never assume that people are going to remember me, and if they do, its more in a "I think I remember you from my ward" kind of way. I, on the other hand, often remember quite a bit about these people. So, usually, I pretend that I don't remember much about them either, because I think it would probably be pretty weird for someone you barely recognize to come up and know everything about you. I mean I think people will probably get a little creeped out and think that I've been stalking them or at the very least was overly interested in them at some point. And thats not the case, at least the stalking part. Occasionally I'll run into some girl that I'd had a crush on, but thats not the norm. I just remember things about people. And then later I pretend I don't know those things. Is that weird?
6 comments:
I think that a lot of people know you from the muss website or from the bus that drove around Salt Lake with your picture on it.
I only saw the one that was on the campus shuttles? Did I make on to the shame train?
Oh, by shame train I mean UTA.
When I used to work a lot in town I'd pretty much visit the same stores a few times a week so you'd be seeing the same staff quite often, then sometimes I'd be on the bus and I'd see someone and think they're familiar, and what it was is when you see someone out of context of where you would normally see them, behind a checkout, stocking shelves etc... or out of their uniform. It still catches me out now.
I do the same thing and find that I generally do remember more about other people than they remember about me. I have trouble sometimes remembering other people's names but can generally place where I've seen them before and how I know them.
Seriously, I HATE when that happens and it's always to me! I will remember their birthday and their grandma's dog's name and they won't even remember my face. It's a gift and a curse.
Post a Comment