Do We Ever Really Forget?

I always wonder if it’s ever possible to forget about someone entirely. Is the human mind capable of forgetting a person or does it just suppress those memories? Sure you have things going on so you’re not thinking about everyone in your life 24/7, but is it possible? We forget the things all the time; where we placed our car keys, where we ate dinner while we were on vacation, the things our professors talked about in class. But when it comes to people, do we ever really forget about them?

Whenever my friends and I talk about people we used to know we always say, “Wow that feels like a lifetime ago.” Sometimes it does, and those people who were in our lives are now irrelevant memories. The thing is, we don’t completely forget them. I mean if you think about it right now, you could probably name the girls or boys you had a crush on in elementary school, middle school and probably high school, but only because I just said it. It’s not until someone reminds you of those times that you think about it. Personally, I don’t think we ever really forget. I think that people suppress the memories they’ve shared with others, but they’re never truly forgotten. I guess that’s why people take so many pictures; they capture moments so they can go back later on and relive them. Pictures keep memories alive.

Music is a huge one when it comes to reliving the past, well at least for me it is. Certain songs remind me of certain points in my life. It might sound silly, but the song, ‘Superbass’ by Nicki Minaj, is one of those songs. Whenever I hear that song I think of Junior Prom. I can picture everyone crowded in our party bus, dressed up and anxious for the night ahead. Then I think of that night. We slept outside in tents and stayed up all night playing, ‘Ello Govna.’ That one song replays the entire night for me all over again and only because it was the song playing as we entered the party bus.

It’s funny how music has that affect on people. The same way, ‘She’s So High,’ reminds me of my senior year of high school. Maybe it’s because I always heard it on the radio and I loved the song, but it brings back some vivid memories. Even now that song comes up on my Pandora at least once a day and each time I picture where I was when I heard it in the car my senior year. (Higby Road in the fall going to Daylight Donuts to be exact… but who’s keeping track)

It’s just crazy how pictures and music bring back memories. You could say that goes to show that you never really forget about things, once you remember the memories and the people it all feels like it was yesterday. So I guess we never fully forget about people, but sometimes we need a little reminder to bring us back to those memories.

I’m just a student at St. John Fisher College who loves writing and chocolate chip cookies.

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