Hi, I'm Joe, what's your name? Hi, I'm Joe, what's your name?

FAILING TO FAIL!

Joseph Brann

Because of my inability to recognize faces, on top of my bad memory, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked up to the same person, usually a woman, and, believing we’d never met before, I’d say something like, “Hi I’m Joe, what’s your name?” Sometimes it would be a person, once again usually a woman, I already knew but a lot of the time it was someone I’d just met. Regardless, five minutes or not too much later I’d walk up to that exact same person and say something like, “Hi, I’m Joe, what’s your name?” I know this left them feeling uncomfortable and, by the looks they gave me, probably a little afraid. I’ve had SO MANY experiences where people just flat out did not understand me. Truth is, even having dealt with my brain situation and trauma for almost 20 years, I, in many ways, do not understand myself! But I’m working to do better each day and that’s the best I know how to do. Some people have been nicer than others, but some have been completely and totally rude. I don’t really blame the ones who were rude too much, other than the fact that I believe being rude isn’t cool, because I’m not sure how I’d react if someone else did the same thing I did to them, to me. I am, however, positive I wouldn’t be rude and I’d remind them we’d just met.

Everyone’s experience in life is different and some people have been abused physically, mentally, emotionally, and/or otherwise and I in NO WAY shape or form at all pretend to know what others have gone through. My experiences, though, have helped me to become a lot more understanding towards what other people might be going through. What would YOU do if someone walked up to you two separate times in a brief period of time and introduced themselves to you? How would YOU respond if you were me and had my situation, lacking the mental ability to recognize them or remember you’d just met? In life, remember, everyone has different experiences and we should treat one another with kindness! Be the best person YOU know how to be, and try to remember we all have different challenges, weaknesses, strengths and abilities, and YOU will keep improving and becoming or continuing to be the best YOU you can be! Until reading my next blog and even after, remember keep FAILING TO FAIL!