How do you react if you bump into someone from school?

[MariaLioness]

I'm going to preface this by saying that I've just turned 25. So yes I'm a lot younger than most of the posters here. I went to a selective mixed-sex private secondary school and stayed on at this very school for 6th form.

I'm making this thread because I've had a varied reaction when people from school see me these days. At uni a few people I went to school with went to my university. I even had a class with a few and we'd always greet each other in a friendly manner. I changed uni for master's and had someone purposely avoid me when they saw me.

Now occasionally I'll see people in central on public transport. I've had a former acquaintance come up to me, shake my hand and ask me how I'm doing. Someone a few years below me asked me for a job because they wanted to work in my industry.

I'm a friendly person and like saying hello. But I know not everyone is like that, so it doesn't bother me at all if someone gives me the cold shoulder.

Just wondering what experiences others have had.

At the risk of stating the obvious, how I would react would depend on if we'd been friends at school or not. And also whether we even recognized each other, a lot of time having passed (I am not 25).

Surely at 25 something to talk about in the pub over a drink with your fellow early / mid twenties mates!! Not mumsnetters?!

Indeed

If I saw my mortal enemy, Heather W, I would ignore her & hope she didn't notice me.

If I saw my best pal from school, I'd say hello! How are you? How are the kids?

The 2000 or so former kids between that spectrum would probably cause the merest flicker of half-recognition to pass my aged face.

I remembered bumping into someone from school at around 25. We were never really friends so I just pretended I never saw her, even though we were standing in a lift together in a tube station (the lift was busy!).

I’ve since bumped into a few others. If it was someone I liked, I say hello and have a quick chat. If not, I don’t bother and pretend not to see them.

It was a long time ago - we'd be lucky to recognise each other!

Hello, how are you?

Tbh id be extremely shocked since I live 250miles away from where I grew up!

I heard on the grapevine a few years back that one of my bullies wanted to apologise to me. No thanks... its for themselves, not me. They knowingly made my life hell.

Do they not teach the art of conversation at selective mixed-sex private secondary school ?

not sure what the relevance of the type of school is?

If it was a good friend I’d chat
If it was one of the school
bullies I’d deliberately turn away

I'm 50. I do live in the city I went to school in, after not living there for a while, but I would be incredibly unlikely to recognise them as I am rubbish with faces generally, and I still think they would look about 25. However if I did recognise them I would be all "Oh! Hello! How are you?! What are you up to?"

Unless they were Diane Carter (name changed obviously). I couldn't stand her. She wasn't exactly evil, I just had a vibe.

im actually finding it hard to take myself back to being 25! Although I can vaguely recall seeing a couple of old classmates on the bus when I was in my 20s, and having a very quick catch up as in ‘hi, how are you, what are you doing these days?’ These were people I was vaguely friendly with. It’s probably the same as if I was to bump into an old work colleague now.

If I was to recognise someone from my school days now it would be a miracle, although one of the women working in our local supermarket said she recognised me and did I go to ##### school in the late 70s. She told me her name but I really couldn’t recall her.

Don’t agree at all with this. The wider age range of MNers would give more information and provide a wider range of responses the OP wants

Thank you. I made this post because some acquaintances have been happy to see me and come over to say hello.

I had once had the very awkward moment trying to say hello to someone who primary. I waved, shouted "hello" and just got asked "sorry who are you?"

At 25 I was pregnant with my 3rd child i wasn't in pubs with mates. Mumsnet is for everyone

Im in my 30s and I will say hello to people I went to school with but would rather not have a full blown conversations apart from the few I'm still actually friends with

I'm very much not pregnant. I don't even have a boyfriend. I just posited this question to get other's experiences. I've had good and bad

When I go back to my home town I dread bumping into randoms and having to do polite chit chat, so I have been known to cross the road or pretend not to see people. If we’re not friends in real life or even on social media, I’m not in the slightest bit interested in catching up.

I'm not sure I'd recognise many people from my school year now - I'm 50! I see people suggested to me on Facebook, realise it's a name I recognise from school, but wouldn't have realised if it hadn't said their name!! 😬 I haven't randomly bumped into anyone from school for years and if I acknowledged them, would depend if I liked them at school!! 🤣

I bumped into a school friend in a random side street in NYC, even though we both live in London. So you never know where you will bump into someone!

I'm also rubbish at recognising people from the past,I often get the you don't remember me then I've to admit where do I know you from.

Should add left school 40+years ago.

Ignore them/pretend I haven't seen them, I can't be bothered with small talk.

Honestly if we haven't kept in touch then I'm not really interested, same goes for old workmates and people I was at university with and won't go out of my way to say hello and hopefully they wouldn't either. I don't live in the area I grew up in and so this is rarely an issue. I wouldn't bother with a reunion either for the same reasons, I'm not on social media either. I wish them all well but we don't know each other anymore.

The first time I experienced the "pretend you don't see them" was during my master's and the person did the whole look at floor thing as they walked past and it was very obvious. It stung a bit as all I was going to do was say "hi" and go to my lecture. The person was nice enough to answer my questions about the uni social scene over the summer and gave a courtesy "we should meet up". I can't really tell when someone doesn't mean it.

Anyway I realised I was being too sensitive and got over myself.