retracing footsteps

recently, i had dinner at a restaurant i hadn't gone to in maybe four or five years. it was near the first games-industry company i ever worked at, so i used to go to that & a nearby restaurant often for lunch (being the only two vegetarian restaurants in the area 😆)

i'm generally a shy kind of person so i don't think i ever said more than a few words at a time to any of the staff there (especially when i first started working i was much more socially awkward than i am now haha), but when i went today, one of the staff come over with a grin and was just like, "long time no see! remember me?"

and since i have prosopagnosia no i absolutely didn't... but from context i made an educated guess & was correct! it turns out they used to work at not the restaurant i went to but the other restaurant i often went to, but they'd switched to this one a few years back.

(another fun little "oh i absolutely cannot recognise people without context" thing - apparently the person i went to eat dinner with was right at the convenience store next to me before i went to the restaurant! i didn't recognise them but at the restaurant they asked me if i was at the convenience store just now & i had been haha)

i was really surprised that they'd remembered because i hadn't been to that restaurant in about the same span. i'm pretty sure the last time i went there was before i quit that first job, & i didn't say anything about it either because i didn't realise anybody there would recognise me anyway, since they must have a lot of customers who come by for lunch. but it was nice to be remembered, & at the end of the dinner another staff member came by with a hot drink on the house which was very kind.

it made me think about how we all probably make a lot more impressions on other people than we expect, & in situations we wouldn't think of. the person i was having dinner with was my manager from that very first job, and apparently they and the other person at my job interview could still remember that interview very clearly... but i honestly can't remember anything about it at all! but something from the interview must have made them want to hire me, & being in the games industry was a big catalyst for me starting to make games, so without their knowing they were a huge reason for my life taking a fairly sharp pivot to point me to where i'm at now.

all in all, a night of multiple small revelations, & i'm going to try to make sure that the next time i head to that restaurant is sooner rather than later.