The Truth Behind Our Memories
*This is an entry for the May Blog Of The Month competition.
What is life? Well that is a philosophical question that many have tried to answer. Some have succeeded; most have failed. But if you ask my naïve opinion, I will just day that all this life and all this fuss concludes in one word - memories.
You want something today someone wants today and all your life builds and revolves around it because that thing or that person is the reason of some happy moments, some soothing memories. But the irony of this life is that our memories are not true.
Now this is not a debate point for some philosophers. In fact I am stating scientific views and researches. Research says that whenever we are trying to remember something about our past, our brain has the ability to change it and distort it just like you would want it. Our brain is trying to compensate the reality and soften it for us.
The story doesn't end here though. Firstly you have an experience that your brains makes into an exaggerated, beautiful memory, and then when you try to remember it again, your brain will not show you the original scene but it will conjure the fabricated memory of it that is a little more colorful, a little brighter.
So now, a simple 'Hi' from a crush changes into: 'He looked towards me like I'm the only girl in the world. I really must be special'. That is the reality of memories - they are just a compensated response for the things we do not want to face.
The reality is none of us really remembers what our parents went through for us. How many nights your mother stayed awake because you had a fever, or how many times your dad stood up all night just so you could shut your eyes and go to sleep. None of us remembers all those times when our mother gave us a bath and our father dressed us.
We can't remember any of that because our memories did not start building up that time unfortunately. Now that is something I want to remember because I know and you all know in your heart that whatever facts say about our brains tampering with our memories, this love and care from our parents will never be an exaggeration. It can be understated, but never an exaggeration.
I would happily trade all these fabricated, compensated, 'so-called' beautiful memories of a crush or a temporary love for the true, purest and honest memories of parents in the blink of an eye. Would You?
- Amna Khalid (Class of 2019)
What is life? Well that is a philosophical question that many have tried to answer. Some have succeeded; most have failed. But if you ask my naïve opinion, I will just day that all this life and all this fuss concludes in one word - memories.
You want something today someone wants today and all your life builds and revolves around it because that thing or that person is the reason of some happy moments, some soothing memories. But the irony of this life is that our memories are not true.
Now this is not a debate point for some philosophers. In fact I am stating scientific views and researches. Research says that whenever we are trying to remember something about our past, our brain has the ability to change it and distort it just like you would want it. Our brain is trying to compensate the reality and soften it for us.
The story doesn't end here though. Firstly you have an experience that your brains makes into an exaggerated, beautiful memory, and then when you try to remember it again, your brain will not show you the original scene but it will conjure the fabricated memory of it that is a little more colorful, a little brighter.
So now, a simple 'Hi' from a crush changes into: 'He looked towards me like I'm the only girl in the world. I really must be special'. That is the reality of memories - they are just a compensated response for the things we do not want to face.
The reality is none of us really remembers what our parents went through for us. How many nights your mother stayed awake because you had a fever, or how many times your dad stood up all night just so you could shut your eyes and go to sleep. None of us remembers all those times when our mother gave us a bath and our father dressed us.
We can't remember any of that because our memories did not start building up that time unfortunately. Now that is something I want to remember because I know and you all know in your heart that whatever facts say about our brains tampering with our memories, this love and care from our parents will never be an exaggeration. It can be understated, but never an exaggeration.
I would happily trade all these fabricated, compensated, 'so-called' beautiful memories of a crush or a temporary love for the true, purest and honest memories of parents in the blink of an eye. Would You?
- Amna Khalid (Class of 2019)
That's the most beautiful aspect of memory. If someone like me given the oppurtunity to remove all of my previous memory. Good and bad. I wont take it. You live your happy moments again and you learn form your bad ones.
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