To forget or not to forget...

[Auticorn]

Do you ever have those moments when you always remember things you want to forget, yet you always forget the things you want to remember?

Me and a friend of mine were discussing this a little. It got me thinking and wondering how many people deal with this. I guess you could say I'm curious about your responses. X3

I get like this. It varies depending on what I'm remembering though. I'm usually remembering more things I want to forget than anything. It's funny how I do because I know I've moved on and come to terms with forgetting about the **** in my past, you know?

 

[Auticorn]

I always have a lot of important things but I forget it! :( Example:
Forget about homework. Always every single day.
Forget to switch off the light before bed.
I even forget to switch on my morning alarm and that is why I always almost late to school every single day.

I was talking more in terms of memories. Not things you might forget in your daily life. :/

 

[killer-curry]

I was talking more in terms of memories. Not things you might forget in your daily life. :/

Sorry about that :(

Well, I tend to forget a lot of stuffs from the past so when my friends talk about my past moments , I just like " Did that ever happened to me? ".
In the other hand, when I always want to remember all my equations and definitions for exams, but my mind just "delete" everything and I kinda like memory lost during the tests.

 

[Ice1]

I remember most of the times I embarrassed myself. I never pick out moments I specifically want to remember, tho.

 

[Dreg]

I have a terrible memory of faces but I do remember names very well. Also, bad things I tend to remember more than the good... but normally my long term memory is excellent but my short term memory is terrible lol.

 

[Bounsweet]

Sometimes I'll be in the middle of work or just as I'm about to fall asleep, usually the latter, and I swear to god my brain is like, "Lol, let's really vividly remember that super embarrassing thing you did when you were in the sixth grade..." and it keeps me up at night reliving that (secondhand, now?) embarrassment.

I can remember not so embarrassing memories too, but it's usually the embarrassing ones that I seem to just randomly and suddenly remember the most, which is probably not a good thing...

 

[Somewhere_]

There are definitely some things i would like to forget about.

 

[Kayges]

I can still surprise my fiance by recalling minor details of the first time we met, our first date, the first time we said the three words, etc. He smiles because, to him, some of the little details are quite minor, but I can remember them vividly. Of course, I don't mind that he doesn't remember them, it's just about how the individual handles each situation and memory.

Conversely, as I've grown older I've realized that it's much better to remember everything you can rather than willing yourself to forget painful memories. Even though I've had harmful experiences that I would rather forget, I am who I am today because of them just as much as the pleasant ones. You can learn from every experience if you keep an open mind after the ordeal.

Memories I would rather forget and yet remember clearly are usually ones of embarrassment. Embarrassment can be an extremely strong sensation to those prone to it like myself, especially in social situations like public speaking. My legs shake and I start to stutter, but I also think back to this time in middle school when I had to do a presentation on Clara Barton. I was completely in control because I studied the subject matter and knew everything I was going to say. Thinking back, that memory is rather fuzzy, but it reminds me of the important lesson of preparation.

I sound like an old man.

 

[Wicked3DS]

This just seems to happen to me naturally, I can't really explain it. They say something about selective memory, but if it was really so selective, wouldn't I choose the important stuff first? :P

 

[Spacy]

Yeah, I forget a lot of things and it's kinda scary... A different points of my life I sometimes can get no more then just a feeling and a mental image or two. Unfortunately this means I can never remember that many details of my past years, but at least I still retain some memory of important events and relationships with others.

 

[Deleted member 143209]

Sometimes you look back at moments when you do something awkward and end up feeling shameful. I have a strategy when I feel that I've embarrassed myself in front of others. I look around at those who've witnessed my awkward action and try to think of something embarrassing they've done in the past. Most of the time I can't think of anything, which is exactly the point. If you think you've embarrassed yourself in front of people, chances is they won't remember or particularly care in the long term. The same way you probably don't feel all too concerned by how others have embarrassed themselves in your presence. It's all a matter of perspective.

 

[Schwarzer Regen]

Brain:
"Unimportant and highly useless trivia about the mating behavior of the common forest ant? Put that in the upper folders of memory

Hurtful rememberings from past incidents that still are pricky even years later? SHIFT INTO MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE MEMORY SAVING

Actually useful mathematical formulas and knowledge about potentially useful things? Beats me"

 

[acatfrommars]

Yeah, I remember the good and especially bad events of the past. I think that the bigger events in life are the ones that we remember most often. I'd rather not go into what I remember on here though, but sometimes I even dream about things in the past. For example, my roommate was cooking a pork chop one day, and the smell hit me like a freakin' rotten tomato in the face. I instantly sat up and gagged it was such a weird smell for that time of day. Anyways, last week I had a dream that I was smelling that same smell and I was stuck smelling that until I woke up; talk about a nightmare. :c

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I remember the bad more than the good when it comes to my past. I guess the saying of "the past will haunt you forever" is a bit true. That said, I do have a lot of fond memories of things that I'll never forget and will always look back on for a good smile :^)

 

[Aslan]

I remember both the good moments and the not so great or downright awful ones. I don't really ever forget either - if someone brings up a word or idea that I associate with that event, then chances are I'll think about it if it was significant enough. The moments that I remember more clearly tend to be bad as they're the ones that've had more of an impact but there's a lot more good than bad memories otherwise, thankfully.

 

[moon]

I'm able to bury my worst memories, actually. Perhaps they are not gone forever, but I can throw up quite a few mind doors to block them off from casually being remembered.

Happy memories... I think of them sometimes, but I'm afraid that every time I do, I kind of turn them more and more into beautiful fairy tales rather than accurate representations of what transpired. Not sure that is much of a problem though. c:

 

[Evening]

I never really liked dwelling in the past when I was a child, so I grew up as someone trying to ignore those memories.