1 Comment// Posted in About Me, Random by Nielfa Hanifa on 02.04.09.

Or her-face, to be politically correct… you see, I’m really bad with names, especially those belonging to people that I don’t see often.

Once, I was in the supermarket with a friend (that I see often and won’t ever forget her name, because she’s so cool,) let’s call her friend-A and we bumped into someone else that I knew, let’s call her friend-B (and know that this friend and I aren’t close nor do we see each other often). So after exchanging pleasantries, friend-B looks over at friend-A, then back at me with that look in her face saying, “aren’t you going to introduce us to one another?” Now, here’s the thing… under any other circumstances, I’d have done the introductions way before starting to chat, but in this case, I totally forgot friend-B’s name.

I didn’t chicken out and pretend that I knew her name by ignoring her obvious body language to want to meet someone new, instead I asked her to forgive me because her name just slipped my mind. She didn’t seem offended and told me her name, I introduced friend-B to friend-A and that’s the end of that story. Don’t judge me.

But… now even though, I’m terrible at remembering names, I have a knack for remembering faces. So even if I don’t remember your name, if I see you some place I wouldn’t walk past you without greeting or a smile. Unless you clearly ignore me, then I’ll definitely pretend that I don’t know you either. Snob!

Anyway, my knack for remembering faces is so good (or bad), you could be a cashier, someone I saw in an elevator or a random person whose face I just happen to look at only once, your face gets stored in some memory bank in my brain. On many occasions, I see someone that I know I’ve seen before and I simply can’t place who it is or why he or she looks familiar to me. Sometimes I even torture myself by thinking that maybe I actually know this person and I forgot their name. Then it dawns on me and I remember exactly where and when I saw this person.

So the long and short of it is, I’m bad with names but good with faces… I’m that person who’d be able to pick out the criminal in a police lineup, like in the movies. I think I’ll call it what’s-his-face (or what’s-her-face,) syndrome.

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