You can't know that.

[ieuleron]

Over the span of my life, I've gotten used to people asking me variations of, "How/why do you know that?In high-school I was known to be the biology guy.   In Bio2 I would sit at the back of class and fall asleep most days.   One day I arrive in class to find we're going to have an exam.   I went through the exam once, noting two questions were

Comments

[stickcow]

Your test story reminded me of my time in high school. Though for me it was that I would fall asleep from the fluorescent lights while in class. When I was taking chemistry I was in a bad place and most of the time never went to class, my teacher would come find me before tests and say "we're having a test today, maybe you should show up to class." I would get As(though not always 100s.)

I do wish I had a memory like yours, mine is more like swiss cheese.

[ieuleron]

Oh, there's plenty of swiss cheese in my head. ;-)

In 4th grade, a kid ('Zach') came up to me and started a conversation. I asked him who he was, since I didn't know his name or even recognize him. He expressed that he and I had been good friends the year before. I expressed doubt. He persisted in his story for long enough for me to experience some concern about my swiss cheese.

I still occasionally have some minor anxiety relating to that kid, since the question was never entirely settled. I am happy to note that there has never again been any evidence that I simply forgot the existence of someone that I shouldn't have.

[ieuleron]

Well, there's the gal who emailed me in college... saying that she had been my biggest competition for grades in middle school. I was confused, since I wasn't competing with anyone in middle school. I'm pretty sure I never knew her, but that she knew of me... I try not to worry about it too much.

[rabbitucker]

Since we had a few of the same classes in middle school, I am curious... Who was the girl?

[ieuleron]

I have no idea at this point. She wasn't someone I recognized, but that potentially isn't meaningful given prior evidence described in the story.

...and there's no way to dig up email that old, from computers long since scrapped.

Since we knew each other from 3/4th grade on, I actually now wonder if you know of this "Zach" person?

[rabbitucker]

I was actually giving that some thought... I don't remember any Zach from elementary school. That isn't to say that there wasn't one, but I can't recall one for the life of me.

[ieuleron]

I find that biology teacher is one of the few from high-school that I'm likely to ever think about.

Though, now that I think about it, there was another teacher who let me get away with as much/more for the same reason. Seniors at my HS had to take an economics class. I was involved with academic competitions, which involved studying for economics (among other subjects). The teacher let me use her hour for academic competition training, since I was getting intensive examinations on the subject routinely. I only ever showed for class at the final exam, whereupon I realized one of my good friends was in the class. "I didn't you were in this class!" "Me neither!"

I do wish I had gotten to know that teacher, as both she and the biology teacher realized I had mastery of the subject and that it would be wasting my time to enforce the class attendance rules...