Earliest Memories?
I don’t remember it
What is your earliest memory?
This question is truly baffling. Who I am to say and against what proof can I confirm that it is my earliest memory as i write this? Yet, probably the most obvious reason why this question puzzles me to no end is…
I don’t remember my earliest memory.
Does it make sense not to remember a memory? Must moments be remembered to be counted as memories?
“a mental impression retained; a recollection: one’s earliest memories” – Dictionary.com
…but the question is…
Can “once memories” be counted too?
Things you used to remember and had forgotten. Indeed almost everything that happened to us would count as “once memories” and thus my earliest memories would be the first thing that happened to me which my brain consciously registered. I wonder when would that be?
Nonetheless, I should not worry because my earliest memory is already one of the earliest moments of a newborn. It is of a nurse wearing a pink uniform. She had thick black eyebrows and big hazel eyes. She cradled me in her arms and was rushing to some place. The ceiling was white. I remembered hearing lots of noise, probably her footsteps now I thought about it.
How did I remember? That’s not humanly possible if even biologically possible, right. Indeed, I made the memory up.
Memories change and is subjected to a person’s imagination because we could not remember every single detail. Often, our brain fabricated information and details to maintain a logical flow of information. Other times we conveniently filtered and neglected information we deemed unnecessary.
Memories can be evoked. They can be evoked from smells, sights, photographs, sounds, music, stories, dreams. My “earliest memory” is evoked when I saw a photo of my mother when she was pregnant with me so I immediately visualised how it might be like when I was born.
In other words, I just lied. My “earliest memory” is actually an “imagination of one of the earliest moments of my life”.
It’s not a “fake memory” but rather an imaginary vision.
Is it counted as a memory to begin with?
However, what if it is something I want to believe? Since memories can change and we can choose to overwrite and erase memories, can we still count made-up incidents as memories if it is what we want to believe?
Yes.
After all, that’s how it works with some mental patients who live in a false reality. You cannot deny their memories even if they are false because that is what they want to believe in. It might be because they want to live an easier life, they want to numb themselves from the harsh reality etc. Regardless, we acknowledge their memories.
Then, what if these memories aren’t actually humanly possible? For example, it can be a “memory” of when you were in your mom’s womb; or when you were supposedly too young to remember anything?
Does it count?
Nonetheless, one thing we could be sure of, this post is going to be your first memory of me
