I was grinding away at college work in my dorm room when my roommate texted me something puzzling: I’m you today. My immediate reaction was a baffled, um, what?—though neither of us voiced these thoughts aloud.

Care to explain? 

He followed up with a photo of a name tag bearing my name. 

That still doesn’t explain anything. I’m confused, I replied.

He responded, That’s your name, as if I hadn’t known that my whole life.

Yes. I know. Thankfully, I still remember my name.

Our conversation continued in various confusing directions as he explained, or rather attempted to explain, that he was attending an off-campus event where participants could wear other people’s name tags. Since my name tag was apparently an option (available?), he chose to be me.

Now, I couldn’t fathom how my name got there or why he was so keen on "being me," but I figured, why not?

As our conversation drew on, it became clear that the event organizers had printed name tags for last year’s attendees, making it all the more interesting, but, for those curious, the “Jonathan Lin” he now claimed to be wasn’t me.