I have always been a chronic list maker!
I suppose I refer to it as almost an "illness" of some sort, because people are often commented on the fact that I have a list for almost everything in my life. I suppose they find it unusual...
And that is quite true. I keep a lot of lists. But it's not because I have OCD. Of course the part of the picture most people aren't fully aware of is that I have a truly lousy (short term) memory.
It's definitely not a case of me getting old and forgetful, because I've had a lousy memory for as long as I can remember. This unfortunate state of affairs always presented itself as quite a challenge when I was in school and needed to remember an assortment of facts for tests or for pop quizzes in class, because I invariably wouldn't be able to.
I didn't exactly suffer from test anxiety, my anxiety was mostly concerned with not being able to remember a bunch of stuff that I knew that I knew, but had just forgotten.
I remember my mother thinking there was something seriously wrong with me because I couldn't remember ordinary things from one moment to the next.
And I would come to ask her a question about something, and by the time she got unbusy doing what she was doing and actually took a moment to listen to me I would have forgotten what it was I meant to ask. The frustrating thing about that, was my mother in her invariably superior mood would end up saying the same thing each time it happened: "well then it must not have been very important!"
False! Absolutely 100% false.
Along the way, I've tried a battery of different exercises and programs allegedly designed to improve short-term memory, but none of them have been significantly successful. For a while I was even spending $25 a month on a subscription to one of those online "brain training" programs that apparently makes your mind sharper... but whereas it helped in some ways, the one area in which it didn't help me was retention of information AKA short-term memory.
Of course, it's slightly ironic that I'm now sitting here writing a post about "memories" of not being able to remember and I'm actually perfectly capable of remembering that I couldn't remember!
And if that sentence made sense to you, congratulations!
The only thing that has really changed as I am now approaching my 63rd birthday is that I don't worry as much about my poor memory. I've also learned to accept that it is essentially only my short-term memory that suffers, my long-term memory remains pretty good... and it is sometimes remarkable what I can remember about a specific event... 30 years ago.
Sadly, having a good long-term memory doesn't help me very much when I'm standing at the supermarket trying to remember what it was I needed to get for dinner knowing that I've forgotten the shopping list back at the house!
Lists will only get you so far...
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2023-06-08 00:51 PST
0854/2109
