I walked out of my Discrete Structures class today and while struggling to get into my coat, literally bumped into one of my former classmates.

She called me by name and said, ‘Hi!’

Oops, I’d forgotten never known her name! When someone’s all gushes and happy to see you for some reason, you’d better know their name.

She’s Chinese, and I kept thinking of any Chinese name I’d encountered in my Economics class in fall. I couldn’t come up with any.

While she asked about my major and we discussed our last semester’s Economics grades. She made a B, while yours truly who stayed at the very front of the class sleeping under the Prof’s gaze, made an A — in fact Dr Kunrod would stop by concernedly before every class and say, ‘Azuka, are you doing okay today?’ While she joked I should have been in International Business (her major) since I’d done so well in Economics, I kept racking my brain to see if I could find any Chinese name that had been mentioned in class, hoping all the while I wouldn’t have to use it there and then.

We said our goodbyes and I headed for the dorms. The first thing I did was log onto the CougarWeb (Mountain State’s student access web) and backtrack to last semester’s classes and course mates. I found her name, which was English, not Chinese — although her last name was.

This isn’t the first time I’m forgetting someone’s name, and every time I have to deal with it, I’m ashamed. I don’t know the names of my supervisors at the library, or of some of my fellow coworkers [even though we greet cordially], and neither do I know the names of some people I’ve met over time. It’s embarrassing to get stopped by someone who says, ‘Hey Azuka!’ and I struggle to remember the person’s name.

Am I really that absent-minded? I get introduced to some people and five minutes later, I keep myself from saying ‘Hey you!’ because I’ve forgotten their names. I say ‘Excuse me’ and everyone around me says, ‘He’s very polite.’ If only they knew…

Here’s another 2007 resolution — to remember the names and details of every person I get to know this year.

The good thing about today is I know that if I run into my friend tomorrow I can say, ‘Hello Jenny!’