Meeting Me

I have a common name. Very common. Google it, you'll get over 6 million hits. Add in the middle name, you're still over 2 million. Being so common, you'd figure I would have had the chance to run into plenty of other Jasons Jones by now, yet I haven't.

My first close encounter happened in 3rd grade. I transferred to a new school and apparently there was another Jason Jones in the same grade but with a different teacher. It was almost mystical how I never saw the guy. Every time someone would mention him it was right after he left the room. I really started to believe this kid was some sort of myth. "Oh, he was just here, you didn't see him?" or "Oh, oh, there he is:"

All I ever saw was a whisp of hair, and then he was gone.

I didn't have any sort of encounter with myself again for quite awhile. In my early twenties I overheard myself checking in at the registration table when I was already in the voting booth.

I ended up voting next to myself.

The most annoying encounter with myself came one day when I went to pay a parking ticket at the courthouse. I told the lady my last name, she obviously needed my first name to narrow her choices, then my middle to narrow them further, then finally my birthdate to finally find me. "So you need to pay for your DUI?", she asks. What!! No. I've never done that. But apparently another one of me has. The only difference between us? Well, besides the obvious lack of judgment, his middle name is Aaron, mine is Allen, and we were born ten days apart.

I'm pretty sure this same me got a job at the Chili's restaurant where I worked. I never saw him, for he was only there a day. It was quite tempting to take his paycheck when he hadn't claimed it after 2 months. It's not like I would have had trouble cashing it.



I'm a bit surprised that there aren't more famous mes. The first time I saw my name on the big screen I was quite excited. The movie was Bait, starring Jamie Foxx. I was reading the credits and there I was: Guard played by Jason Jones. Needless to say, I was the best reason to rewatch that particular film.

I was really excited when this me also got a recurring role for about 3 episodes on one of my favorite shows: How I Met Your Mother. I played the ex-husband of one of Ted's serious girlfriends. I hated myself a bit when she dumped Ted for me.

A different me has made quite a name for myself as a correspondent for The Daily Show. I've never watched it, but I hear I'm pretty funny.

According to Wikipedia, I am also two major league baseball players, a NFL football player, the lead singer of a band called Drowning Pool, and I'm a security contractor who may have been associated with someone's murder.

The most disturbing encounter I have had with myself was when I Googled my full name recently. I was thirty one years old when I did this. Using my middle name and quotes, I found that Jason Allen Jones, 31, had been murdered in Texas. That was a bit chilling.

All this has led me to January of this year. My first real hand-shaking meeting of myself.

I was called in the church to help with the score-keeping for basketball. When I showed up, there I was. I think they only meant to call one Jason Jones, but then didn't pay attention when someone actually called both of us. Although the name is super-common, I was still surprised to be introduced to myself. I hate to admit it, but I wasn't all that impressed. I hope that isn't how most people feel when they meet me.

I think the thing that bothered me the most was he didn't seem to think that it was pretty cool that we shared the same name. Who knows, maybe he's met me before.