Same school, different coping strategies

I knew most of them, at least by face or reputation. One, however, who was sitting at the other end of the table, started to articulate some different perspectives from those I was routinely used to hearing in such company. They were informed and profound. I flicked through my pack to find the man's profile: he is a senior figure in public life, as I might have expected. What I did not expect was to find that he had gone to the same school as me.

Over lunch I purposefully sat next to him and mentioned this fact. It turned out that he had been just one year below me at school. His first remark was that he was sorry he could not remember me but that I should not be surprised at not remembering him: he had worked hard, and successfully at being quite unmemorable and invisible during his school days. This lack of mutual recognition, even of our names, became all the more surprising when we discovered we had even been in the same school house.