One thing about memory and the ability to store memories in the brain that has intrigued and puzzled me is the process by which the brain goes about retaining certain memories. These are memories that are trivial, unimportant little slivers of times gone by; times which hold no seemingly significant importance yet are clearly imprinted in the mind.
A personal example I could give would be whenever I drive northbound (back home) on I-75 and I see the exit sign for the city “Utica”, I instantly get reminded of this girl, many years back, whom I saw for a total of two dates. She had once told me in a phone conversation that she happened to be in the Utica area and wanted to see what I was doing.
This girl and I never hit it off, and no sparks really ever flew. I never think of her any other time, yet I cannot pass this exit sign with thinking of her. Now, I wonder why my brain chose to hold onto this memory or form this connection when so many other, seemingly more worthy, events have gone on in my life that don’t have such triggers (or have such connections).
I’ve suffered with stress, anxiety and Depression for the last 10-12 years and my memory has gone to the dogs. Short term completely kaput, long term, I have to think hard to remember things…
Occasionally an old memory will suddenly surface for no reason whatsover, nothing seems to spark one of these ‘flashbacks’
I’m wondering if it’s my memory “healing” itself now…?
For example, my recognizable memories from high school 30+ years ago consist of probably 20 snapshots that pop to consciousness now and again. All but 1 or 2 are utterly mundane day-in-the-life scenes. Why that particular solo walk towards the library and not the doubtless similar one from the day before or day after? If I work at it I can reconstruct a visual of most of the campus. But some parts are just gone, and not necessarily parts I never visited. Why?
I have a pretty terrible time remembering people’s names, but for no good reason at all I remember the name of a woman I sat next to on a flight to Paris in 1999, and where she was from (Chicago).