rachel’s blog

When I arrived at a retirement celebration for a colleague this afternoon, the middle-aged woman serving the cake flashed me a smile and greeted me as if she knew me. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t think who she was, so I just said a breezy hello. As I waited for the line at the food table to move forward, she leaned towards me and said, “You look really pretty today!”

Um, thanks. Today was one of the rare days that I decided to wear jeans to work, so I was actually dressed down, not up. She must have thought I was someone else — probably a student.

“I’m sorry,” I confessed. “I don’t think I know who you are.”

“I’m Nancy! We met one day in the library and talked for a while!”

Nancy. Aha. Now I realized who she was. We had been briefly introduced to each other at a meeting six weeks ago, but that was the extent of our interaction. We certainly didn’t have a conversation in the library.

“Really?” I said. “I think you must be thinking of someone else.”

“No, it was you — I’m really good at remembering faces.”

That’s interesting. So am I. I started to say something about where we met, but she was too busy reminding me that “we chatted in the library!” I should have introduced myself and explained which department I work in, but it was easier to simply end the conversation and let her think I’m a student.

A pretty student.