{"id":899997,"date":"2026-06-29T04:13:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/899997\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:13:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:13:30","slug":"summer-gatherings-are-anxiety-provoking-heres-an-easy-way-to-fix-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/899997\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer gatherings are anxiety-provoking. Here\u2019s an easy way to fix them."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/p>\n

This is One Thing<\/a>, a column with tips on how to live.<\/p>\n

No one told me that you actually have more parties as an adult than you do as a kid. There\u2019s a party for everything: dinner parties, holiday parties, office parties, birthday parties, watch parties for hot television shows, random costume parties, wedding parties, I-don\u2019t-really-know-why-we\u2019re-even-having-this-party parties, and, if Charli XCX\u2019s coining of the Party 4 U party<\/a> is anything to go by, we\u2019re inventing even more.<\/p>\n

But the increasing number of parties, though tiring, isn\u2019t my problem. My issue is names. I don\u2019t know if my executive functioning skills are dwindling given the state of the world lately or if I\u2019m just getting older, but nowadays, I won\u2019t forget a face, but I will forget a name. In fact, it feels almost destined. At these gatherings, my web of \u201cI met you at that thing last summer, right?\u201d people just continues to grow ever larger. In order to remember a name, I have to repeat it multiple times within a first encounter, which is hard to do while sounding natural. And, even then, if there\u2019s a year in between the last time we met and our meeting now\u2014like if you\u2019re someone I only see at my colleague\u2019s annual birthday party\u2014the chance of me having repurposed the neurons that used to hold your name within the past 12 months is startlingly high.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, last year, when I had two holiday parties to attend in one night, someone brought up the perfect solution: name tags.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n <\/p>\n

    Forget Strawberry-Rhubarb. This Mysterious, Unconventional Pie Is the One You Should Be Baking Right Now.
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n

  2. \n <\/p>\n

    Every Child Seems to Take Part in a New, Exhausting Tradition These Days. Teachers Have Some Theories About Why.
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How beautiful would it be if we \u2026 just did name tags? Why don\u2019t we include them as essential party wear? I\u2019m here to say they need not be relegated to gatherings of children and annoying workplace icebreaker snorefests! This is something everyone would benefit from\u2014I know because I\u2019m not only the forgetful but the forgotten. If we had a place where people could put their names out on display on their bodies\u2014and we do have this technology!\u2014that would totally save us from that awkward moment where you\u2019ve been talking to someone for 10 minutes straight but realize you do not know the most fundamental aspect of their identity.<\/p>\n

    Name tags don\u2019t have to be boring! You don\u2019t have to just write your name and some pesky \u201cAsk Me About\u201d bullet points or fun facts. This isn\u2019t an academic seminar. Think of them, like I do, as a fun craft or group activity! Why not set up a little tag decorating station at your soir\u00e9e, filled with stickers, glitter pens, and colored markers galore, where people can zhuzh up their labels to be creative and fully represent themselves? Or a World Cup watch party with colored name tags to choose from depending on which team your guests are supporting.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \n J. Bryan Lowder
    \n There\u2019s One Big Mistake Everyone Makes When Decluttering. The Solution Is Something You Already Own.
    \n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    You can even make them topical for themed events! One of my dreams is to throw a party after having finally watched Sex and the City wherein I would make name cards themed after each of the main characters, forcing invitees to choose whether they\u2019re a Samantha or a Carrie (which would be listed beneath their real names, of course). Not only would this help with atmosphere and socializing, but it would also give your less social friends something to talk about that isn\u2019t as hackneyed as a \u201cfun fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

    However you go about it, let\u2019s all, as socially conscious adults, take advantage of the brilliance of the name tag\u2014fun ones!\u2014at our mixers. And give our poor brains one less thing to worry about.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Sign up for Slate’s evening newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":899998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[42207,210,7709,364505,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-899997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-etiquette","tag-health","tag-holidays","tag-one-thing","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116831455028992235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}