Personal Narrative: My Trip To Yellowstone National Park

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Years ago my family took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. I chose this common experience for this memory assignment. First, I made a list of all the things I remembered from my trip at Yellowstone. I remembered we traveled in our motorhome and got halfway to our destination and parked on the side of the road and slept there for the night. I remember seeing the famous geyser; Old Faithful, in addition to seeing lots of bison, and bears. I recall one night that we stayed in a campground bears were in the campground and we were being told to stay in our campers. I also remember during the trip my dad would give me all the spare change and I would collect it. I saved the change up to buy souvenirs or candy. I also remember going to a shirt …show more content…

She remembers hiking to a waterfall where a park ranger was looking through binoculars. She said they were looking for a dead body because someone committed suicide and jumped off the cliff into the massive waterfall. My mom said she remembers always going to a new campsite each night in the motor home. She also claimed the campsites seemed to be very close together. She remembers seeing a black bear, Old faithful, and all the hotpots. In Montana she remembers going into a museum. My mother recalls telling my family multiple times not to get too close to the buffalo.
The third person I chose for this study is my older brother Briar. My brother remembers seeing buffalo, Old Faithful. He remembers there being a lot of people wherever we would go. He described the day that it rained really hard. He remembers sitting around the campfire and being amazed that even though it was raining hard the fire was still roaring. My brother also remembers visiting the large waterfall. Briar also remembers my dad buying a grey shirt that said Yellowstone on the …show more content…

We all had memories that are unique to our remembrance. One thing that makes memories unique is personalization (George, 2017). For example, nobody remembered the way I collected coins during the trip because that memory was important to me. It was a personal memory for me. Personalization made our memories different from one another because we all remember our individual experiences (George, 2017).
My mother's memory from seeing the massive waterfall was different from when my brother told about that same waterfall. My brother simply remembers seeing the waterfall, where as my mother remembers the park ranger looking for the dead body. My mother most likely remembers this detail from the waterfall because it triggered pain (George, 2017). My mother is very caring for others and hearing this suicide must have made her upset which caused her to remember the memory.
Another difference was a false memory I made due to Retroactive Interference. Our family has gone on multiple camping trips with my Aunt and Uncle’s family. I thought we had met their family in Yellowstone. Nobody else remembers meeting them in Yellowstone. My mom later assured me that we did not see my Aunt and Uncle on this trip at all. This is called Retroactive Interference. “Retroactive Interference is when old memories interfere with the retrieval of newer memories” (George,

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