Look fixedly away

I was walking in town yesterday when I saw saw an acquaintance. I felt a lot of dread. I always feel a lot of dread whenever I see acquaintances. It's not so much the fact that they are reminders of the past, as it is the fact that seeing one always puts you in a prisoners' dilemma-esque situation.

The optimum scenario in this case would be where each party acknowledges the presence of the other, hence leading to a warming of relations. A smile, a slight nod, it doesn't matter, it makes one feel better after and helps pave the way for greater interaction the next time both meet in some other setting. The problem arises when one doesn't acknowledge the presence of the other. This could be due to non-awareness or deliberate ignorance. Whichever the case, it leads the other who, say, smiled, feel like an idiot. This experience would urge him not to be so forthcoming next time, and so we may have a situation where both parties don't acknowledge the presence of the other which, given that both know that the other ignored him, would lead to a definite chilling of relations, not that that is wholly undesirable in the first place (in some cases I've ignored some people so many times, and vice versa, that the status quo now is to ignore each other, so there wouldn't be, perhaps ironically, any awkward moments).

I hate smiling for the sake of smiling. I think it's very tiring to do so, which is why I dislike social functions immensely. And which is also why I dread going to university a fair bit, because I know Im going to bump into a lot of acquaintances there over the course of 3 years, which means lots of dilemmas over whether to smile or look fixedly away.