We’ve all been there… whether you are that forgetful friend that doesn’t remember their own mother’s birthday or if you just happen to blackout for a second, there has been some point in your life where we all have experienced one of these three things;
1) Not introducing yourself or your friends
2) Reintroducing yourself to someone
3) Just the awkward….“Hey …you…” because we have forgotten someone’s name.
Example:
My friend and I got in one of these situations before. We were at a basketball booster banquet and you are ‘supposed’ to know everyone’s name cause, shit, they are donating money so you can play at their school. They know your stats inside and out, they come to every game to watch you play so the least you could do is remember their name, right?
Wrong. We were new… there were a lot of people we had to remember and you know my friend isn’t the best at remembering names…if she didn’t have to sign it every time she bought a drink at the bar, she’d forget it. She’s one of those….
Anyways, we had to write the names of the people who were buying raffle tickets on their tickets for them. Most of the people give you their names cause they realize we are only human and we probably don’t know everyone’s name that sits in those nice little seats on that side of the gym…
However, you always run into those people that expect you to know their life bio. With these people we used this genius method we like to call, the ‘spell it out for me’ technique… pretty self explanatory, you get the person to tell you their name by pretending like you’re a bad speller. This technique was going great until this happens….
Us: “so how do you spell that again?"
Booster: “B. O. B”
Us: “Oh….. so yup it is exactly how it is spelled….perfect, so there isn’t a silent U? weird…see my Uncle actually spells it with a H so..you never know…(looks at me terrified) did you catch how to spell that without the U?”
Looks at the booster with a little oops smirk and we start writing frantically while we both know we forgot the name and try not to act uncomfortable… this is the moment when you find an exit strategy as soon as possible…
How to solve this problem you ask?
Avoid the situation if at all possible, if you don’t remember someone’s name either do the polite, direct, “I’m sorry I’m drawing a blank…what was your name again? Or have someone introduce your new friend so that you can pick up on the name before it gets awkward.
However, If you’re not the go getter type A personality, like let’s face it me, then avoid this situation at all costs…put something in your mouth, try to find someone else to talk to or just bee line to the nearest exit.
