On the topic of memory

[merlinofchaos]

On Sunday, when talking to a bunch of new people and just generally chatting, I made an anology that describes my memory pretty well. It's not entirely accurate, as there really are different, equally disproportinately spaced boundaries, but this sounds really good and doesn't require someone to know my general history to understand it.

My memory goes like this:

Yesterday, last week, last month, last year and high school.

In my head, there really isn't much differentiation between things that happened last year and things that happened, oh, 3 years ago. The markers seem to fade--or rather, get moved--over time. High school is nicely representative of the traumatic-change-of-life that most everyone goes through at some point, where things are one way, and after that, things are completely different. May well be college for those of you that went.

Unrelated to any of this, I need to start planning a late summer party and/or a September birthday part. It's 'and' if I'm too lazy to start planning one for August, say, right away, and 'or' if I put it off as I seem more likely to do.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes. I know that memory phenomenon. For me, it's "the other day." "The other day" can be anywhere from yesterday to, oh, fifteen, twenty years ago. :)

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

I think I sort of organize stuff into "eras" where each era represents a place that I have lived or job that I have had. So I can sort of "tell time" backward by remembering where I was when something happened or who I was with. But it does get kind of blurred with distance.