Friend Requesting People You Don't Know And Then Running Into Them- Annonymous User Submission

"The following ended up being one of the most awkward moments of my life and so, I felt compelled to share it with you.

This event occurred prior to arriving at Brown University but post being accepted. I had decided to add “Class of 20-- Brown University” as one of my groups on facebook in order to stay updated with assignments and steps that could be crucial to getting a good start in college. Naturally, other people were part of the same group. I began receiving friend requests from people I had never met in my life—which in itself, I think, is something very awkward and sleazy to do.

Side note: I rejected all of the requests. Later when I arrived at Brown I realized just how awkward it would have been to have accepted any one of those requests. What if I saw one of those people walking down the street or in the dining hall? Should I say hi? Nevertheless, my story pertains to something much more awkward than accepting someone unknown, but still related.

I received a friend request from a girl with a very strange and exotic name—one that would be hard to forget if mentioned to me again. This friend request, however, was different than all the others I had received. Attached to it was a message that said something along these lines,

“Hi! My name is ----.

I am going to be a student at Brown University also! I am so excited to go to college. It’s so soon and the summer seems so long. I was looking through some of the facebooks of people in our year and a lot of them seem really nice. You seemed nice and I think I would get along with you so I decided to message you! What is your major? What are your interests?...”

She proceeded to ask many more questions, all of the same general kind. When I received this I was perplexed as to what course of action I should take. I had a few options. 

Either completely ignore the message and the friend request, accept the friend request and reply to her message, or any other combination of the above. I decided that if I rejected her friend request and did not reply to her message, she would think I was a bitch if we saw each other for some reason or other. Finally, I decided that best thing to do would be to ignore her friend request but reply to her message. I replied with a very brief message which included absolutely no questions so as not to encourage any more messages. Nevertheless, after only a few hours I received another message from this person. This time I decided not to reply and soon forgot this ever happened.

***

New scene: It was the second day of orientation and I was in the dining hall, waiting in line to get dinner. It had been a hectic night the night before and I was a little out of it. All the sudden, a short girl with an accent comes up to me, hugs me, and yells my name in an exclamation that implied, “I’m so happy to see you finally!” She asks me how I’ve been and how the rest of my summer was.  My response was delayed by a few seconds. I was shocked and took those few seconds to think of any possible scenarios where I could have met this completely unfamiliar girl. The first thing that came to mind was the night before. I had met many people and so it would have been normal to forget someone’s name. 

I asked her if I had met her yesterday and apologized that I did not recognize her. However, she laughed and soon corrected me and informed me that she had not met me the night before. She told me her name and then said, “Remember me now?” The moment kept getting more awkward as the conversation evolved. I responded in the negative. Then she said, “From facebook?” That is when it hit me. Her name sounded familiar now and I realized she was the one who had messaged me long ago and whose message I decided to ignore. I thereupon apologized again for not knowing who she was, made a brief comment stating that I was busy and had to meet up with some friends, although it was obvious I was just trying to leave since I was standing in line with an empty tray. I walked away, completely thrown back by what had just happened.

It upsets me to say that I have seen this person several times since then. After a few more encounters like this, although not quite as awkward, I think she understands just how awkward the situation was. At least I hope she understands. Now we just say hi casually but never engage in a conversation. I’m glad we finally reached a mutual understanding of the extent of our relationship.

Moral of the story: Friending people on facebook without actually knowing them is awkward, especially if there is a possibility of actually meeting this person in the future. And pretending to know them when you finally see them, makes the whole situation worse."

-Anonymous