"Do we know each other?" said Cary Grant
"Why? Do you think we're going to?" replied Audrey Hepburn
These lines come from "Charade", and they bring up an interesting situation.
We all know it's embarrassing to see someone waving in your direction and mistakenly assume they are waving to you as you return the wave, only to realize that they are waving to someone behind you. Sometimes, but not likely, embarrassment can be avoided if you keep waving as you pass the person to make them think you were waving to someone behind them. However, this is only marginally embarrassing since you obviously don't know the person, and aren't likely to see them again.
However, even more embarrassing is assuming that the person is waving to someone behind you, only to realize that they are were waving to you and you can't remember who they are! "Hey Jon!" "Oh, hi...how are you?" Now I have someone in front of me who surprisingly knows all about me and I can't even think of their name or how I might know them. This is much more embarrassing. But can you blame me? I mean, I've been going to BYU so long that everyone's face seems familiar to me, so I can't assume I know someone just because I recognize their face. And since I'm bad with names, I'm stuck in a rut.
The effect: Now sometimes I don't even say hello to people I know if they don't see me because my mind has been conditioned to link awkwardness with running into people unexpectedly. I am trying to get out of this habit...the best solution I can see is to graduate and move away from Provo.
3 comments:
you know what else is embarrassing? when you're talking to one of these people who you "know" and they ask you something that you can't really hear and you answer it anyway. I don't know why people do that - if you can't hear, just say you can't hear. I do this myself, but only when I've already asked them "what" like 6 times before this comment and I don't want to ask again. So then I just answer whatever question I think they asked, and that gets pretty embarrassing when you're wrong.
Try being a twin. I have people I don't know say hi to me all the time. Sometimes I just pretend that they're saying hi to someone behind me. (Sorry Chris, some of your acquaintances may think you're ignoring them"
one of my friends once tackled carter into a vending machine thinking he was me.
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