“Turning Awkwardness into Friendship: The Tale of Jared and Jon”

It was starting to feel a little offensive to me – he and I had met loads of times already, and yet he kept either straight up forgetting my name, or calling me the wrong thing. My name is Jon, but he keeps calling me Jake or Jim or Joseph or something like that.

I didn’t want to be that person who makes a big fuss about it, but I also felt a little embarrassed each time it happened in front of my colleagues.

So I figured out a solution.

A few weeks ago, we met again at a big company event. Before he had a chance to say anything to me, I said, “Hey Jared!” (His name is Jeremy.)

He said, “Uh…”

“Oh, sorry. Jamie, right?”

“Is this because I keep calling you the wrong name?” he said, looking very sheepish.

“Yeah … It’s nothing personal mate, I reckon it would be fun for both of us to keep calling each other the wrong name.”

He laughed and couldn’t stop apologising. He said he’s bad with names and it’s something he really needs to work on, and that he’ll start with mine. But now, we have an inside joke every time we see each other – we call each other the same fake name. So now, we’ve both been calling each other Jared. I have overheard him referring to me by my actual name to other people, though, so he does actually remember it now.

I think we’re mates now?