I've got this problem. I'm sure you have encountered it too. Maybe it doesn't bother you as much as it bothers me.
My problem is that everywhere I go there is bound to be someone who looks familiar. I recognize people in my classes. I recognize people I see walking down the street. I recognize people at parties, at shows, at various other social gatherings. The problem is not so much that I recognize people, but that I can't remember why I recognize them.
I know other people have the same problem as I do because I'll meet people and they'll ask me if we've met before, because I seem really familiar. Sometimes we manage to trace through all our past activities, classes or friends to find the missing link, but usually it ends up being a mystery not worth solving.
The situation has only gotten worse as the years go by. My social circle is ever widening, although not so much as to include good friends, but rather a large number of acquaintances whom I can make idle small talk with, usually discussing the friend we have in common. As the number of classes I've taken increases, anyone from a past discussion or lecture is suspect to catch my attention, whether or not I remember them from said class.
Sometimes I succeed at identifying the person in question. This usually happens only after I've stared at them long enough to thoroughly creep them out. But there are many times when I fail at figuring out who that familiar person is. Sometimes it's because they walk by too quickly. Occasionally I can't remember if the person IS someone I know, or just looks like someone I know.
Here's just one example out of many. I was walking along State Street, being fairly inattentive to anything around me as per usual. I looked up to see a familiar looking passerby smile at me, and knowing I had to act fast. I gave her the quick smile and nod while continuing on my way, thinking I'd figure out who she is later. I did in fact realize who she was. She was a friend of a friend, of course! A friend of a friend who goes to school in another state. D'oh.
Of course it doesn't occur to me that someone could be smiling at me just to be nice. That just doesn't happen, right? Not on a campus where we avoid eye contact with anyone who walks by. Truth is, if someone says hello to me and I don't recognize them, I have to wonder what they want. I find it disheartening to know that we can't say \hello"" to someone just to be friendly, that smiles can't be exchanged just for the sake of it.
Meanwhile I'm just as bad as everyone else, with my headphones constantly on as a way of shutting interaction out. But the faces I see will only start to look ever more familiar as the days go by. I'm sorry if I stare at you, but maybe one day I'll start to recognize you and smile.
