On occasion, Anja will compliment me on my ability to recognize people. I don’t know when I first noticed it myself, but there are actors I recognize even if they played minor characters in an episode of a show I watched 15 years ago. Or I might point out that woman I saw on the bus before COVID hit to a confused Anja.

I’m learning it’s not a very common trait because of the scoffing sound I make whenever Anja confuses Keira Knightly and Daisy Ridley, or Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan. I only recently became aware how much of a jerk that makes me, and how, if we were in a room full of people, I’d stick out like a sore thumb.

I’ve wondered if I could be classified as a super-recognizer. I remember taking the test a few years ago and stopping halfway through, fearing that I’d see the faces of the people in my dreams and nightmares for all of eternity.