Reflection About Memory

What am I doing here? That’s a question I ask myself a lot. Part of the human condition is to wonder what it all means. I can’t imagine that someone hasn’t asked themselves that at one point or another. Granted, most of us have probably blurted it out during times of stress, anger, or disappointment. However sad or happy you are, the question remains pertinent. How you answer the question will define how you live. What part does memory have in this life defining answer? While the answer we come up with might seem better suited for a conference topic about many other things that aren’t about memory, memory is at the root of the answer. The memory I’m talking about is not the fact that you remember getting up this morning. Yes, you probably can rattle off the routine you went through and how you physically came to sit in that chair in this room at a

I’m not a scientist or a doctor or someone who’s taken more than Karna Doyle’s adolescent psychology class, however awesome it was. The best I can say is that I’ve had twenty four years’ worth of life experience and emotion that has seen very deep lows and soaring highs and many levels in between. I know that I have many more years to live, hopefully, and while some might say I’m too young for any real experience, people in my age group have a unique perspective. Many people’s philosophy on memory, if you believe the snippets of songs such as “Live While We’re Young” and countless pictures shared on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, is that this is the time that people my age should really live. “Really live.” We need to travel, drink, have sex, do stupid things, and follow our whims, so that if we make to an old age we don’t have any regrets. The young are to make memories for their older selves, which indicates that memories are useful only as stories and a source of nostalgia and regret. The philosophy has merit to it, but I hesitate to make it