Really? You know who I am?

I always feel weird when people who I don't think know me come up to me and say hi, especially if they address me by name. I get a funny feeling that that sentence doesn't make much sense to most people, so let me explain. Being involved in theatre, and now improv, I know a lot of people I don't actually know. This could be actors from plays, people in other improv troupes, or even just friends of friends. To say the least, I recognize a lot of people in the community that I am no actually acquainted with. Being myself, I automatically assume that people don't know who I am, especially people that I think are really good at what they do (although, I think most people are better at things than me, so this applies to most people.) So when one of the aforementioned people comes up to me and greets me by name, I'm usually thrown off.

For example, last week I was at an improv show (as an audience member) and at the intermission someone came up and started talking to me, asking how I was, etc. This person was the director of a show I had auditioned for. It would be normal if I had actually made it into the show, or saw this person frequently, but I did not even make it past the first audition. I think I had perhaps seen this person twice in the past 3 months, and that was in a large group of people. It seemed very unlikely for him to remember me, considering how brief our interactions had been. But, come intermission, he walks right up to me and says something along the lines of "Hey Melissa, how have you been?"

I'm still getting adjusted to people recognizing me. Having people come up to me and say things like "Oh, I saw you perform a while back, you were really funny." seems so strange to me. The fact that people enjoy scenes I do enough to commit me to memory fascinates and confuses me. I've come a long way, but I'm still the awkward shy person I've always been at heart.