I went to Whole Foods yesterday after work, and I was nearly done shopping when I turned down an aisle and saw a woman walking toward me. I recognized her almost immediately, and so I smiled, nodded, and uttered a little “Hey” to her as we neared each other. She smiled back, but her eyes said, “I have no idea who you are.” After we’d passed each other, I realized why she might not remember me: apparently not everyone recognizes people who sat near them in an airport terminal. It was only two weeks prior, but we never said a word to each other at the airport nor did we even make eye contact (that I can remember). She and her husband/boyfriend/friend/brother/other were sitting in my row of seats before lining up to board the plane, and at one point she got up and went to the restroom. There’s no reason for me to recognize her now, but even less of a reason for me to say, “Hey.”
Because of my strange memory, this wasn’t the first – or worst – time that this has happened. Back in junior high school, my brain’s ability to recall faces provided me with many awkward encounters. I’ll explain. I worked on the yearbook staff my 8thgrade year. While I’m sure yearbook staffs now across the country use sophisticated computer programs for layouts, cropping, etc., we had nothing of the kind. In fact, to crop a photo, we needed to use real sliding rulers and a grease pencil to specify what we wanted to remain of a picture. Additionally, we had to physically attach pictures to the graph paper with the hand-drawn layouts and send them in to the printer. I was in a small group of students responsible for the class photos of the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. I spent many days matching pictures to names and affixing them to the sheets. Well, my brain thought it was a good idea to retain some of that information (without consulting me).
Here’s how that manifested itself:
- I’d be walking down the hall and see a young lady.
- Her name would pop into my head.
- I’d subconsciously think, “Since I know her name, we must be friends.”
- I’d say hi or wave or do something similarly friendly.
- She’d look at me like I was an idiot.
And rightfully so, might I add. It’s not like the woman at the airport who had a chance to forget seeing me in the first place; these students had never seen me or known I existed. Yet there I was trying to say hi to them because I thought I knew them. It was very confusing, and even when I figured out what was going on, it was virtually impossible to stop.
In any case, I returned home from Whole Foods with the right kind of ice cream that my lovely and pregnant wife said “the babies wanted.” So I still consider the trip a success.
