As I walk to class, out of the corner of my eye I see one of my best friends from high school. I see the girl that sat on the opposite of the room from me during math class, the boy that sat at the table next to me during lunch, or the friend of a friend that I waved at in the hallway between class. At least, I think I did. Right before I get excited and want to run up and say, “Hey! What are you doing here?” I remember we’re not in Kansas anymore.
I am from a suburban area between Houston and Galveston, Texas. I was raised in the same house my parents took me home to after I was released from the hospital when I was born and the only time I changed schools was to go to intermediate school and then high school. I saw the same people day in and day out. I had friends I’d met the year before and friends I’d known since pre-K. There was only one other person from my high school that came to OU, and as far as I know, only one other person besides us from our district came here. With all of my friends hours I away, I definitely wasn’t recognizing anyone from home.
For the first week or so I was here, I thought I recognized at least 2 or 3 people a day from my high school. Since then, that number has tapered off until I haven’t mistakenly recognized someone in at least 2 weeks. My hypothesis is this: the shock of moving so far away from everyone I know for the first time in my life caused my brain to see people that looked somewhat familiar as people I knew. I believe that this was a type of coping mechanism for being in a completely new environment with strangers. My brain saw doppelgangers of my friends in the people I saw around campus as a way to find familiarity and comfort in a strange place.
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