Did everyone I went to school with end up
working for Vodacom? Seriously?
So sitting at my desk, minding my own
business when suddenly a wild schoolmate appears! (If you don’t get that reference
then go back in time and fix your childhood.)
I use the word schoolmate very loosely here…
We were never mates… The only reason I know she went to school with me is
because she recognized me and said “Hey, you’re Terri, I went to school with
you.”
Back-story: I have never been good with
situations like this and was informed by my sister a few years ago that when a
person recognizes you and greets you by name the polite thing to do is smile
and pretend you know who they are. Apparently saying “Sorry bro, I don’t know you.”
And walking away is an unacceptable way to deal with this sort of situation. I
did not know this back then but I've been practicing my pretend hellos since I
found out.
So I smiled and said “Hey, how are you?”
and she replied “Good thanks, how have you been?” YES! Success! She thinks I
know who she is! At this point I felt like I was winning at everything, so I
carried on with our conversation. “I’ve been good” to which she replied “You
used to be a lot skinnier in school.”
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I was just so lovely
to this girl and she passes some snarky little comment. OH. HELL. NO!
Without missing a beat (Even I was
surprised at how quick my response time was.) I replied “Yeah I was, people
change as they get older. I suppose that’s not always the case, you’re still as
un-rememberable now as you were back then.” At this point the guy from my
office she was here to see is both shocked and trying to not laugh at the same
time. He tells her she can wait in the boardroom and after she leaves he bursts
out laughing.
Around ten minutes later another three employees
of Vodacom show up for the meeting. I was again just doing my work, chatting to
the guy they were here to meet with.
One of the girls pipes up: “Hi, did you go
to (insert school name)”
“Yes, I did.” (Oh great! Another one!)
“I thought you looked familiar. Terri
right?”
Now the struggle begins, am I nice to this
one after I wasted a perfectly good fake hello on the last one? I figured, what
the heck… I’ll be nice.
So I smiled and replied: “Yes, that’s
right.”
“You probably don’t remember me, I was in
matric when you started high school.”
“Not really but it was a really big school.”
“You taught me how to swim. I’ll never
forget you.”
*Insert warm fuzzies in my heart* “Well, I’m
glad I could help.”
They went off to have their meeting and I
am super glad I decided to be nice even though I was not even slightly
interested in speaking to her.
Day made.
That’s all.
*Unrelated Fact: Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
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