Life Calendar Reflection

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A lot can be learned by filling out an examining a life calendar. When I was filling out my life calendar, I had to force myself to think of things I had not thought about it a long time, like the names of past schools I attended. The making of the calendar itself seemed fairly easy, but going back and examining it is where the work came in. Combing through which retrieval processes took place, what type of knowledge was stated, and where emotion played a role took a little bit of time. Although it might seem like a little more work, making a life calendar provides more detail than what is usually received from other types of personal memory retrieval tasks. A number of notable observations were made during the process of filling out the life …show more content…

I identified every time I changed schools, moved to a different residence, had a new job, and started dating a new boyfriend as lifetime periods. I labeled these as lifetime periods because often I will identify a period of my life by saying, “it happened when I was in high school” or “I went there while I was dating A. S.”. Since my perceptions of self tend to be school-related, somewhat boring, and genuine, I believe they influence my lifetime periods by distinguishing them as such. General events in my life included friendships, my pet sitting job, my current job, and the schools I attended. I decided these were general events because when thinking of them, the duration of time for each tends to be generic and generalized. I do not say things like “I tore a muscle while I was a pet sitter” or “my grandpa passed away while I was friends with C. L.”, which means they are not lifetime periods. With both lifetime periods and general events I remembered them with perceptual …show more content…

I experienced one involuntary memory, which was texting my first boyfriend while sitting in a restaurant in the Wisconsin Dells. The reason I had this involuntary memory could be that it was an unusual event, and not something I never think about (Berntsen, 1996). The memory came to me without effort while I was writing down the initials of my boyfriends on the life calendar. All other memories I recall having during the process were voluntary, since I tried to remember them. Emotion only played a strong role twice during the project. The first time emotion played a role was when I was remembering when I moved to my Lincoln Avenue address, which required me to remember when my grandma died. Since my grandma was like a second mom to me, grief was a very strong emotion that helped me recall my

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