This is the only podcast I listen to anymore and I look forward to each new episode! While I’m a big fan of Zack, Ned, Keith, and Eugene, their podcast gremlin hosts my two favorite reoccurring segments, Advice That Will Go For Miles and the rare but spectacular, Paper with Miles.
My secret:
I’m a pretty chatty and open person so I don’t have many secrets so I really had to think for this one.
Growing up I went to a different school than the one that was assigned by my address because the after school daycare I went to was right next to the other one. When I graduated elementary school in 4th grade, I went to a different intermediate school than my peers because it was the one actually in my zone. I started 5th grade and I didn’t know a single person at my school and had no friends.
I made friends with a girl and we spent the night at each other’s houses and hung out all the time, like good friends do. For the first 4 months of our friendship, I did not know her name. I’m super super bad at names and at some point it just became too late in our friendship for me to confirm. I eventually kind of knew her name but it was one of those names that kind of sounds like another name, like Ann and Anna but with more syllables. My dad would say the wrong one and the correct name would completely disappear from my mind, I’d just know my dad said the wrong one. I felt like an awful friend but I eventually remembered the correct name. I probably haven’t seen or heard from her in 15 years when we were in junior high, but I hope she’s thriving.
To this day I still forget everyone’s names and I have to try to work up the courage to admit it early on or convince another friend to introduce themselves to them for me.
Actually thinking about it this happened with one of my housemates but I didn’t know her name for a year. My buddy took the fall for me by calling her by the wrong name and getting corrected. It’s a real struggle.