essay on memories of life

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Memories Essay – Prompts And Examples To Get You Covered!

What would life be without memories? I guess it wouldn’t even exist, right? Both happy and worse are memories to keep. There is always a lesson to pick up from any memory that you have.

Guess what?

The brain, as small as it may seem, accumulates thousands and thousands of memories. Imagine the big servers stored in a data center – that is nothing compared to your brain.

A childhood memories essay is one most student enjoys when presented with to write. They quickly rush to recounting some of their experiences but forget one crucial aspect. When the deal is too good, then think twice.

Now let’s get down to some writing prompts.

30 Great Memories Essay Writing Prompts

My Childhood Memories Essay

• What was your favorite game with your siblings
• Can you recall a scary childhood memory?
• How was your first walking experience like
• Describe your first day in school experience
• What was your best childhood snack?
• Do you recall your first childhood friend? How did you meet?
• Describe your first toy
• What was your best childhood color?
• Do you remember your first pet?
• Describe your first school bag

My High School Memories Essay

• What life lessons did you learn in high school?
• How was your first experience in high school? Did you find it amusing?
• What new things did you discover and learn in high school?
• Did you send letters to your crush from other schools?
• How was it like attending classes? Did you cut some lessons with your friends?
• What did you feel about high school field trips?
• How or what was your high school farewell song? Do you miss it?
• What capabilities and talents were you able to discover in high school?
• How was it like staying up late to study for exams?
• How did high school change your perception of people and life in general?

Episodic Memories Essay

• Describe your first job experience
• How did you feel when you first visited the beach during summer
• How was your first plane experience? Did you enjoy it?
• Where did you first visit for your valentine’s date with your spouse?
• How did you feel when you first participated in an election?
• Where were you when the tragic September attack took place?
• The movie you saw on your first laptop
• Who was your first roommate on campus?
• Which was your first country to visit overseas?
• How did you feel the first time you moved in all by yourself?

Such memories can be a good start to writing a memories essay of your own. If you think you may not have all the details, don’t torment yourself. You can always ask around from your parents, old friends, teachers, and even neighbors.

An essay on memories should be handled with a lot of caution. Why may you ask? Such an article should be free from biases. It should be objective. And that is where the problem lies.

Luckily, the solution is simple. Learn more.

Structure of a Memories Essay

As of other essays, an essay on memories also has the same structure:

• Introduction,
• Conclusion.

Let’s briefly look at each of these sections.

The Introduction

It is the doorway to your essay. You start by establishing the context of your memories essay, which will act as a hook to your readers. A quote can do well in this case.

For example, “Cakes are special. Every birthday, every celebration ends with something sweet, a cake, and people remember. It’s all about the memories.” Buddy Valastro.

The quote above creates an interest in the reader’s mind and provokes them to poke further into the essay. An introduction ends with a thesis statement.

Example: “memories are truly add meaning to life.”

It carries the significant weight of the essay with supporting examples, facts, and even statistics. It is made up of body paragraphs directly relating to your memories essay thesis statement. The standard paragraph structure of a topic sentence, explanation, examples, and illustrations are followed.

Here is an example of a well-defined body paragraph:

“Those high school outings are my most treasured memories. I recall the moments we boarded the school bus and visit interesting places. I remember how amazing it was putting on my best shirt, set aside for that special occasion. Memories of how we would buy goodies in the mall before heading back to school still linger in my mind. That’s the best part of my school life. It never gave me a frown.”

The Conclusion

Here, you restate the thesis statement and make a summary statement of the memories discussed in the body. You can choose to also conclude with a quote such as the one below.

“Childhood is like being drunk. Everyone remembers what you did except you” Noor. H.

Memories Essay – You Need Help With That?

For you to write one of the best childhood memories essay, ensure that you include the most exciting events. Events, where you did funny or creepy things, are easy to recall. Go for such, and you will have a free course of ideas.

Can you recall a childhood memory and write a memory essay now?

In case you still have a challenge coming up with such an essay or would like custom professional writing assistance , our expert writers are here for you.

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Best Childhood Memories Essay Ideas: 94 Narrative Topics [2024]

Many people believe that childhood is the happiest period in a person’s life. It’s not hard to see why. Kids have nothing to care or worry about, have almost no duties or problems, and can hang out with their friends all day long.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

An essay about childhood gives an opportunity to plunge into your memories. All you need to do is recollect those happy days and write a brilliant essay! In this article by Custom-Writing.org , you’ll find great tips and topic ideas to kickstart the process.

• 🔝 Top 10 Topics
• 💡 Coming Up with Ideas
• 🧸 Childhood Memories Essay Topics
• ✍️ Writing Examples & Guide
• 🔍 References

🔝 Top 10 Childhood Topics to Write About

• Your favorite holiday memory.
• Your brightest memories of winter.
• Your earliest school memory.
• Your first visit to a farm.
• What was your favorite toy?
• Do you remember your granny’s kitchen?
• Your childhood memories of your parents.
• Your best childhood friend.
• Things that you initially disliked at school.
• Experiments with physics in childhood.

💡 Coming Up with Childhood Memories Essay Ideas

Perhaps you got lost in your memories and cannot choose the best one to describe in your essay. Or maybe you have a bad memory and cannot recollect something specific to write about. If that’s the case, here are some recommendations for you.

Childhood Memories List: How to Write

Don’t know where to start? Try creating a list of your memories to decide which ones you need for your paper.

There are our top tips on making a childhood memories list:

• Write down everything that comes to your mind. What are some significant memories from your childhood? Every little experience starting with your earliest memory matters. Of course, you don’t need all of this information for your essay. Still, it will help your brain to start working in the right direction.
• Try to focus on specific things such as holidays, trips, or food. Everybody’s favorite childhood memories are often connected with them. Remarkable events also might include school, neighborhood, hometown, presents you received, and your achievements. Nostalgia is your best friend in this case.
• Divide your memories into categories. Good childhood experiences such as receiving a dream present or adopting a pet belong to one category. Life-changing events, key achievements, and unfortunate accidents can go into other categories.
• Try not to avoid bad childhood memories. It’s not the most pleasant thing in this task. But sometimes, writing about bad situations or challenges is a good strategic decision for your paper. It can also help your personal growth.

How to Remember Childhood Memories

What is your earliest memory? A frightening fall down the stairs? Or perhaps blowing candles on your second birthday? Whatever the content, it is probably short and vague.

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When we grow older, our recollections of early childhood become fragmentary . In fact, a profound memory loss occurs, which psychologists call infantile amnesia (you can learn more about it from the article “ New perspectives on childhood memory ”). Memories formed during early childhood are more fragile than those formed later in life.

That’s why it’s a great idea to write down our childhood recollections. This way, they’ll stay with us even after they lose their rich vividness and start to fade altogether.

Naturally, you can’t keep everything in your head. Some childhood memories will stay with you forever, while others vanish during your teenage years. Remembering something you have forgotten is not an easy task.

Here’s a way out: use this checklist to recall your childhood experiences:

Feeling completely out of ideas? Or maybe you can’t think of a specific topic? Keep reading to learn how to generate new ideas and write a great childhood memories essay.

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🧸 Childhood Memory Essays Topics List

Favorite childhood memory ideas.

• Meeting Santa at a mall
• A gift you’ve created yourself
• First time you stayed up all night
• Your first visit to an amusement park
• Your favorite children’s book or comic
• Your best childhood camping memory
• The craziest fact you’ve learned as a child
• Memory about winning a school competition
• What was the most fun school assignment?
• Your favorite food at the elementary school cafeteria

Early Childhood Memories Essay Topics

Kindergarten is often the place where kids start socializing for the first time. Think about your experiences with friends and teachers, as well as with your family. These topic ideas will help you get on the right track:

• The first day in kindergarten . Kindergarten is a new world for a child. It has an unfamiliar environment, new people, and rules. This essay can aim at discussing feelings and expectations that accompany a child on their first day.
• Describe the first pet you had in early childhood. Almost all families have a pet that they love. Often pets are given to children as presents. This essay can relate the best moments spent with a pet when you were little.
• A relative who was closest to you in early childhood. Every child has a family member with whom they enjoy spending time. It could easily be a parent, a grandparent, a sibling , or perhaps an uncle. Write about exciting moments related to your beloved relatives.
• Your first childhood hobby . Most people had hobbies when they were kids. This initial interest sometimes determines one’s future occupation. Here, you can describe the activities you used to do as a little child. Focus on the events associated with your first hobby .
• Festive events in kindergarten . During the whole year, people celebrate many holidays. Naturally, kindergartens hold festive events to amuse children. This essay can portray the unforgettable celebrations in kindergarten .
• Describe family gatherings from your childhood.
• A typical day in your kindergarten.
• What’s the first birthday celebration you remember?
• Activities or games in kindergarten .
• Your first Halloween costume.
• Things that you didn’t like in kindergarten.
• Write about your relationship with nature in early childhood.
• Describe a performance you took part in when you were little.
• What was the best teacher in your kindergarten like?
• Discuss the book or story you loved the most in early childhood.

Elementary School Memories Essay Topics

Would you like to look back at your elementary school days? This section is just what you need. Check out these ideas and get inspired:

• How you met your first teacher. Teachers lead children through a complicated yet exciting path. That’s why we all remember our teachers, especially the first day of meeting them. This essay can recount the brightest moments associated with this event. Additionally, you might describe the teacher’s appearance and personality .
• The most challenging lesson in elementary school . You can probably recall numerous lessons from your school years. This essay can aim at describing positive and negatives aspects of studies, as well as your favorite classes.
• Memories about extracurricular activities in school. It could be sports, artistic pursuits, or activities related to specific subjects. Describe your personal preferences and say who inspired you to start doing them.
• Celebration events at school. Celebrations create the brightest and most joyful memories. In this essay, you can share personal experiences about such events, be it school performances, shows, or games.
• Who was your best school teacher ? Describe the personalities of your favorite teachers and explain why you liked them.
• Write about a person who helped with school lessons .
• What did your first school building look like?
• Describe what you daydreamed about in school.
• Wonderful hikes or trips organized by the school.
• What were your plans for the future growing up?
• Write about going to a museum with your class.
• Memories of participation in school sports activities.
• Recall your participation in writing for a school newspaper .
• Did you take part in any important school activities or events?

Happy Childhood Memories Essay Topics

When writing about your childhood, you’d probably prefer recalling happy events rather than sad ones. But what if you don’t know which pleasant memory to choose? This list will help you make up your mind!

• The best birthday party ever. Recall the most exciting details associated with it. For example, describe some beautiful presents and a celebratory atmosphere.
• The day you’ve met your first love . Write about the impressions, feelings, and the most treasured memories associated with that day.
• Recall the best day spent with your childhood friend. Recount the activities and events that made you happy.
• The most significant achievement in childhood. Recall your achievements connected with the studies, sports, or arts. You can start by describing the task you’ve had, explain its importance, and thank the people who helped you.
• The day you made somebody happy . This essay can describe the instances where you helped others. What were your motivations, and why did it make you happy?
• Describe the best school gathering you can remember. Schools often organize parties where students can have fun. This essay can recount the circumstances and special moments related to such a party.
• Recall a fictional character you liked the most in childhood.
• Write about the best present you gave to someone when you were little.
• Describe the best surprise made by friends or relatives in childhood.
• The most wonderful journey or trip in childhood.
• A sad event that changed things for the better.
• What were the happiest summer holidays in your childhood like?
• Chronicle the day when your childhood dream came true.
• Write about your childhood fear and how you overcame it.
• Tell about getting a good grade for an important assignment.
• Describe the first home where your family lived.

Funny Childhood Memories Essay Ideas

Writing about a funny event is perhaps the best option you can choose. You’ll enjoy describing it, and your readers will appreciate you for making them laugh! Here are some prompts to kickstart the creative process.

• Recollect your childhood actions that make your relatives laugh. Children often behave in interesting, comical, and amusing ways. This essay can detail some fun moments that your parents remember.
• Amusing and funny moments in your favorite cartoons . You probably remember many great cartoons from your childhood. What made them funny? Do you still find them entertaining?
• The funniest pranks you did at school. If you were a mischievous child, this topic is for you. Recall various funny, elaborate, or even failed pranks you did at school.
• Describe the first time you rode a bicycle . Learning to ride a bike is a staple of many childhoods. It’s challenging, but once you master it, you will never forget how to ride it!
• What tricks used to help you pass difficult exams ? Usually, students make cribs or copy someone else’s answers. You can describe more creative ways of passing exams.
• Poking fun at younger siblings . If you have brothers and sisters, you probably tease each other. How do you feel about such activities? Do you both have a good laugh, or did somebody get upset?
• Playing superheroes in childhood. Many children have favorite superheroes such as Batman , Spiderman, Ironman, and others. What were your personal favorites? Did you try to imagine you have superpowers?
• Describe the most ridiculous haircut you’ve had when you were little.
• Funny moments with your school teachers.
• Did you have an imaginary friend? What were they like?
• Trying to cook in childhood.
• What tricks did you use to hide bad marks from your parents?
• Attempts to renovate your childhood room.

Childhood Christmas Memories Topics

Christmas is the favorite holiday of many children. Were you one of them? Choose your essay title from this list on Christmas memories:

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

• What is the best Christmas present from your childhood? Describe the present, the wrapping, and your emotions related to it. Why did you want it so much? You can also try to remember where this present is now.
• Describe a family Christmas trip that you enjoyed the most as a child. Answer the following questions. What were the new places you have seen? What were the new people you met? How much time did you spend there? Did you feel homesick? What did you feel when you returned home?
• What was your favorite pastime during the Christmas holidays in childhood? For example, you can write about watching cartoons or playing with your siblings. Or maybe you enjoyed winter sports and walking with your friends.
• Was Christmas your favorite holiday in childhood? Explain why or why not. Create a list of the things that you did and didn’t enjoy. You can also compare Christmas with other holidays. Find several arguments to defend your opinion.
• Describe the best Christmas present you gave somebody in childhood . It can be something you made yourself or bought. Explain why you chose this gift and what was the recipient’s reaction. What did you want to show with this present? Was it your idea to give it? How did you choose it? Answer these questions in your essay.
• What are your favorite Christmas memories ? You have a wide choice here. You can describe family get-togethers, receiving or giving presents, eating sweets, or having fun while resting from school.
• Describe your favorite childhood Christmas photo . Explain why it is so valuable to you. Define the people or objects in the picture. Try to remember who took it and what camera was they used. Also, provide some information about the time and place.
• Write about your family’s Christmas traditions .
• Describe your favorite Christmas decorations in childhood.
• When was the time you stopped believing in Santa Claus?
• What was your favorite Christmas movie in childhood?
• Write about the Christmas dishes did you enjoy the most as a child.
• What was your favorite Christmas TV special ?
• What were your favorite Christmas songs when you were little?
• Describe the perfect Christmas Eve of your childhood.
• Tell about the friends you liked to invite to your Christmas parties.

These recollections can form a great foundation for your essay. Because childhood is often the best time in a person’s life, writing essays on your childhood experiences can be a real pleasure. If you try to be creative and choose a unique topic, you are sure to succeed in writing an impressive essay.

✍️ “My Childhood Memories” Essay Writing Guide

Writing about your childhood is an exciting assignment that has some peculiarities. Let’s explore some of them.

Childhood Memories Essay: Dos and Don’ts

Your main task is to make the reader feel like they’ve experienced the memory you described. There are certain elements that you can include in your essay to make it stand out. Similarly, some things are better to avoid.

Keep these things in mind, and you will surely write a perfect composition.

Childhood Memories Essay: Step by Step

Follow these steps of the essay writing process, and you will see that writing a good essay on your childhood memories is not as challenging as it may seem.

Narrative Essay on Childhood Memories: Outline

Every essay must have a proper structure. That’s why it’s useful to make a short outline before you start writing. It will keep you from losing your way as you write your essay. It also saves you time! If you have a plan, you won’t miss any important points in your essay.

Your paper should include:

After you’ve finished writing, revise and edit your essay . Make sure your paragraphs are written in a logical order. Read your essay aloud so that you can see how it flows and determine where you need to improve it.

Try our memory-activating prompts and follow these writing tips to compose your perfect childhood memories essay! If you’re not sure that you can write a good paper on your own, you can always ask our experts to help you out.

Further reading:

• School Days Essay: How to Describe a Memorable Event
• Growing Up Essay: Great Ideas for Your College Assignment
• Writing Essay about Someone Who has Made an Impact on Your Life
• Excellent Remembering a Person Essay: Free Writing Guidelines
• Life Experience Essay: How to Write a Brilliant Paper

🔗 References

• The Fate of Childhood Memories: Children Postdated Their Earliest Memories as They Grew Older
• Can You Trust Your Earliest Childhood Memories?: BBC
• How to Start Writing Your Own Childhood Memories for Posterity: HobbyLark
• 650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing: The New York Times
• Bright Side Readers Shared 14 Childhood Stories and We Plunged Into Their Memories Together: Brightside
• Great Questions: StoryCorps
• Introductions and Conclusions: University of Toronto
• Make a List: Childhood Memories: Practical Parenting
• Tips to Retrieve Old Memories: Harvard University
• Make the Most of Your Memory: 10 Tips for Writing About Your Life: Writer’s Digest
• Childhood Christmas Memories: DNA Explained
• What Do Your Earliest Childhood Memories Say about You?: The Conversation
• Can’t Remember Your Childhood? What Might Be Going On: Healthline
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Memory: from the laboratory to everyday life

Daniel l. schacter.

Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

One of the key goals of memory research is to develop a basic understanding of the nature and characteristics of memory processes and systems. Another important goal is to develop useful applications of basic research to everyday life. This editorial considers two lines of work that illustrate some of the prospects for applying memory research to everyday life: interpolated quizzing to enhance learning in educational settings, and specificity training to enhance memory and associated functions in individuals who have difficulties remembering details of their past experiences.

The study of memory lias progressed rapidly over the past few decades, and as illustrated by the papers in the current issue, it remains a thriving endeavor with many exciting new discoveries and ideas. But memory is not only a target for laboratory study; it is also fundamentally important in many domains of everyday life. This point is nicely illustrated by several articles in this volume addressing memory changes in neurological and psychiatric conditions that can have a profound impact on an individual's ability to function in daily life. Memory research has also been applied extensively in legal settings, where such issues as how to construct effective lineups and how to deal with the inaccuracy of eyewitness testimony are of paramount importance. 1 , 2 In this editorial, I discuss briefly some recent applications of memory research in educational and clinical settings that show promise for providing meaningful benefits in everyday life.

Enhancing attention and memory in educational settings

During the past several years, a rapidly expanding number of studies have attempted to apply principles and methods of cognitive psychology to educational settings. For example, one basic question concerns whether memory research can be used to increase the effectiveness with which students study for exams. In a recent comprehensive review, Dunlosky and colleagues 3 evaluated the effectiveness of ten different study methods, and characterized each one as being of either high, moderate, or low utility based on available research. Some of the popular methods commonly embraced by students—including rereading, summarizing, and highlighting—received low utility assessments. Only two techniques, both supported by data from numerous laboratory studies, received high utility assessments: distributed study, which involves spreading out study activities so that more time intervenes between repetitions of the to-be-learned information (as opposed to mass study or “cramming”), and practice testing, where students are intermittently given brief quizzes about what they have learned prior to taking a formal test.

The beneficial effects of practice testing for students are based mainly on studies demonstrating that the act of retrieving information can be a highly effective means of strengthening memory for the retrieved information. 4 Recent work in my laboratory has used a variant of the practice testing technique in an attempt to enhance attention and memory during video recorded lectures. 5 Students frequently experience lapses of attention both during classroom 6 and video 7 lectures. For example, when probed during either a classroom or online lecture regarding whether they are attending to the lecture or mind wandering to other topics, students indicated on approximately 40% of probes that they were mind wandering; not surprisingly, the extent of mind wandering was negatively correlated with retention of lecture content. 6 - 8

Our study 5 focused on video recorded lectures because they are a key element in online education, which has exploded during recent years, partly as a result of the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Consequently, understanding how to enhance learning from video lectures could have important implications for online education. Participants watched a 21-minute video recorded statistics lecture divided into four equal segments. After each lecture segment, all participants did math problems for a minute, after which the tested group received brief quizzes on each lecture segment that took about 2 minutes each; the nontested group continued to work on math problems for an additional 2 minutes and only received a test for the final segment; and the restudy group was shown, but not tested on, the same material as the tested group for each of the segments preceding the final segment. After the final lecture segment, all three groups received a quiz for that segment, and a few minutes later they also received a final test for the entire lecture. At random times during the lecture, participants in all groups were probed about whether they were paying attention to the lecture or mind wandering off to other topics.

Participants in the nontested and re-study groups indicated that they were mind wandering in response to about 40% of the probes, but the incidence of mind wandering was cut in half, to about 20%, in the tested group. Moreover, participants in the tested group retained significantly more information from the final segment of the lecture than did participants in the other two groups, and they also retained significantly more information on the final test of the entire lecture than did the other groups. While it is encouraging that interpolated quizzing can dramatically reduce the incidence of mind wandering and increase retention, the results reported must be treated with some caution, both because they were obtained only with a single lecture on a single topic, and also because it is unclear whether the benefits of interpolated quizzing persist across multiple lectures or in actual online (or live) classes. There is reason for optimism, however, because other kinds of practice testing have produced increased learning in classroom settings. 9

Increasing the specificity of memory

Consider next some recent research concerning a phenomenon that has been associated with a variety of troublesome symptoms in depressed individuals: reduced specificity of autobiographical memories. Several studies have shown that when asked to recall memories of everyday life experiences, depressed individuals tend to provide less specific detail about what happened during those experiences than do nondepressed controls. 10 This reduced specificity has been linked with problems such as excessive rumination and difficulties handling everyday interpersonal situations. 10 - 12 In light of these findings, a natural question concerns whether it is possible to increase memory specificity in depressed individuals, and whether such increases are associated with improvements in any of the problematic symptoms that had been linked with reduced memory specificity in previous research.

Recent studies 13 , 14 have addressed this question by demonstrating that several sessions of training that attempts to boost the specificity of memory retrieval in depressed patients (ie, practice with feedback in generating detailed, specific memories) increases the posttraining specificity of patients' autobiographical memories, even when controlling for associated improvements in depression. Neshat-Doost et al 13 reported that the gains from specificity training were maintained at a 2-month follow-up, and no improvements were evident in a control group. Raes et al 14 showed that increases in memory specificity after training were associated with improvements in everyday social problem solving and rumination. Although further research needs to be carried out to pinpoint exactly what features of memory specificity training are responsible for the observed improvements, the results to date are encouraging, and highlight how basic knowledge of the memory characteristics of a clinical population can be used to formulate an effective intervention.

Targeting autobiographical memory specificity seems especially useful because a growing number of studies have emphasized that autobiographical or episodic memory is used not just as a basis for remembering past experiences, but also for imagining possible future experiences 15 and related functions such as personal and social problem solving. 16 - 19 Consistent with these findings, recent research in our lab provides evidence that an induction aimed at increasing memory specificity in young and old adults had beneficial effects on both groups' performance of subsequent tasks that required either remembering past experiences or imagining possible future experiences. 20 Importantly, the effects of the induction were selective in two ways. First, the specificity induction (compared with a control induction) produced increases in the number of episodic details (eg, who, what, where, when) that participants remembered or imagined, but had no effect on the number of remembered or imagined semantic details (eg, general facts, commentary, impressions). Second, the influence of the specificity induction was restricted to memory and imagination tasks; it had no effect on a task that required participants to describe a picture of an everyday scene. These findings suggest that the induction targeted episodic memory in particular, and more generally, that specificity inductions can be used as experimental tools to distinguish among cognitive processes and representations that contribute to memory and related functions.

Concluding comments

The research reviewed in the preceding sections highlights ways in which memory research can be applied to educational and clinical settings. An important next step for this kind of research will be to investigate the neural mechanisms that mediate the observed effects on cognitive processes. How can we characterize the neural changes associated with improved attention and memory as a result of interpolated quizzing during lectures? What kinds of changes in brain activity are associated with the improvements produced by memory specificity training and how can they help to pinpoint the specific processes that are affected? Recent work in the domain of cognitive control has revealed that extensive training on a video game that requires multitasking skills led not only to improved cognitive performance in individuals ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s, but also to associated changes in brain activity that were predictive of cognitive improvements 6 months later. 21 Moreover, the study also yielded evidence that training served to remediate age-related deficits in neural markers of cognitive control. Applying such a cognitive neuroscience approach to the phenomena considered here should enhance our understanding of both theoretical and applied aspects of memory function.

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Essay Samples on Childhood Memories

Childhood memories are some of the most cherished moments of our lives. They are memories of innocence, fun, and carefree times that we often look back on with nostalgia. Writing an essay on childhood memories is a great way to reflect on those times and share them with others.

When writing an essay about childhood memories, it is important to start by brainstorming all the memories that stand out to you. Think about specific events, people, and places that hold special meaning for you. This will help you organize your thoughts and create an outline for your essay.

One approach to writing an essay on childhood memories is to focus on a single event or moment that had a significant impact on you. For example, you could write about the time you learned to ride a bike, your first day of school, or a family vacation that you will never forget.

Another option is to write a more general essay about your childhood experiences. You could talk about the games you played, the friends you had, and the places you visited. This type of essay can be a great way to share your memories with others and create a sense of nostalgia.

Whether you focus on a specific event or write a more general essay, be sure to use descriptive language and sensory details to create a vivid picture of your childhood experiences. Use our extensive base of essay samples to write your own childhood memories essay.

How Do Childhood Experiences Affect Adulthood

Childhood experiences play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of an individual's adulthood. From early relationships and family dynamics to educational opportunities and socio-economic conditions, the formative years set the stage for psychological, emotional, and social development. This essay delves into the ways how...

• Childhood Memories

A Story From My Childhood: A Cherished Memory

Childhood is a treasure trove of moments that shape our identities and leave an indelible mark on our lives. Among these memories, there's a story from my childhood that stands out like a beacon of warmth and happiness. It's a story that has been etched...

Feeling of Real Home: How My Adopted Parents Saved Me

The home triggered a sense of familiarity which I couldn't define. Had I been here before? I stood on the ample gravel driveway glancing up at the three-bedroom detached family home, quietly tucked away at the end of a winding road on the outskirts of...

• Family History

Statement of Purpose: My Childhood Memories

During my childhood, one day grandpa brought conventional radio into our house and started playing the FM station. It generated curiosity and wonder in my minds. I asked my mom, how human voice is coming out of the device, mom told me that some peoples...

Childhood Memories of My Brother Going Missing

It was on Monday. On the first day of the week, I was so tired. The sun blooms on the horizon. It is the brilliant flower of the sky that warms our days. Look like the sun is inviting us to our new day. My...

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Childhood Memory That Shaped Me as a Person

We all have childhood memories that we hold dear to us. These memories are what get us through the dark days and cheer us to keep going. Imagine how it would be if we lost those childhood memories. It would be sad because we would...

• Personal Growth and Development

Comparison of Me from My Childhood Memories and How I Changed Through Years

Childhood. We say that this is the happiest time of life. But we begin to appreciate it only when it passes or has already gone away for good. Growing up, we begin to evaluate the world around us and people in a different way. We...

Flipped: Lessons and Realizations Essential to Life

A thing or two that people remember even in their youngest days are childhood crushes. These crushes remind memories that make each childhood the best. One book that would remind this feeling is “Flipped”. Written by Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped is about a girl named...

Theme of Childhood Naivety in Seamus Heaney's Poems Death of a Naturalist and Blackberry Picking

A pattern which both poems adhere to, in varying degrees, is one of optimism and childhood naivety followed by sobered pessimism, from an older, wiser Heaney. Death of a Naturalist In Death of a Naturalist, a poem about Heaney’s memory of frogs compared to his...

• Blackberry Picking

Influences of Childhood Wonder: Transition into Womanhood in A White Heron

Sarah Orne Jewett’s nineteenth century tale “A White Heron” explores a temporary hindrance of a young girl’s relationship to nature. Sylvia, the nine-year-old heroine, maintains a simple life in the New England woodlands with her grandmother. With little to remember of her urban way of...

• A White Heron

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden: The Main Undertone of Regret

Born in 1913 into a family which abandoned him, poet Robert Hayden grew up in a rough household and it was not until he was forty that he discovered his original name (Schlib and Clifford 318). Despite all the obstacles he faced, Hayden still went...

• Those Winter Sundays

The Report on Early Childhood Amnesia

This report will explore how childhood amnesia affects a persons memory in regards to early childhood memories as well as how this can affect how people pull memories from early childhood, childhood amnesia is the term used to describe the period from which adults cannot...

The Recollection of False Childhood Memories

An experiment performed in the 1970s studied how people’s memories accountable or misleading are in case they are witnesses to an accident. In this research the participants watched a short video that simulated a car accident. The event happened in an intersection where a stop...

An Analysis of Cognitive Development in Childhood Memories

I think childhood is the most happy and unstressed of my life because when I was a child, I don’t have many responsibilities like now. I can still remember some of my wonderful memories but most of them were my mom tell me. She said...

• Development

A Personal Recount on the Memories of My Childhood

The Childhood is considering as the most innocent phase of man's life. Yet when I look back those innocent days of my early childhood, actually I could not remember much. But those pleasant memories of my childhood linger on time to time due to the...

• Bad Memories
• Social Psychology

Recollection of My Childhood Memories: A Nostalgic Camping Trip

Childhood memories never quickly disappear, and as many others do I hope for the life I've had as a child with a non-stress and loving family. Nostalgia will always be part of me because my childhood was just unforgettable and breathtaking overall. First of all,...

Children's Literature - an Autobiographical Narrative

Books have been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was taught to read both at home and at school, and was given the freedom to choose whatever genre I decided on. My experiences with books were always...

• Reading Books

Certain Experiences From Our Childhood

A child’s behavior is shaped by their genes and environment. This is where the child is affected both by nature and nurture. Nature affects children because of environment. Nurture affects children from multiple things. For example, home, community, beliefs, and our values. Because children are...

Personal Experience And Memories Of Our Backyard

In my childhood, I once went camping up north with my family and that is one experience I will never get off my mind. The place was just so quiet away compared to all the noise from the city and while it was scary at...

• Personal Experience
• Personal Life

Through The Narrow Lanes Of Calcutta

As a child growing up in the developing district of Bally, a small town in Howrah situated on the north western side of Kolkata, I wasn’t much used to seeing the red green houses that North Kolkata is famous for. The other side of Hooghly...

Best topics on Childhood Memories

1. How Do Childhood Experiences Affect Adulthood

2. A Story From My Childhood: A Cherished Memory

3. Feeling of Real Home: How My Adopted Parents Saved Me

4. Statement of Purpose: My Childhood Memories

5. Childhood Memories of My Brother Going Missing

6. Childhood Memory That Shaped Me as a Person

7. Comparison of Me from My Childhood Memories and How I Changed Through Years

8. Flipped: Lessons and Realizations Essential to Life

9. Theme of Childhood Naivety in Seamus Heaney’s Poems Death of a Naturalist and Blackberry Picking

10. Influences of Childhood Wonder: Transition into Womanhood in A White Heron

11. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden: The Main Undertone of Regret

12. The Report on Early Childhood Amnesia

13. The Recollection of False Childhood Memories

14. An Analysis of Cognitive Development in Childhood Memories

15. A Personal Recount on the Memories of My Childhood

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Childhood Memories Essay

Recalling childhood memories lead us to experience the feelings of our old days. These childhood memories are such that they last forever. Some memories help us to recall the pleasant moments of our life. But, some of the memories scare us because we have both good and bad experiences in our childhood. These childhood memories help us to go through the tough days of our lives in a happy and cheerful manner. They give strength to overcome difficult situations and fight against them. This essay on childhood memories will help students to write an effective essay. After going through this article, they can describe their childhood memories in a better way. For more CBSE essays , students must practise essay writing on different topics.

500+ Words Essay on Childhood Memories

We all remember our childhood friends, interesting incidents relating to them, our family members, relatives, and so many other things. Childhood is a lovely time that everyone remembers. It is the period that everyone cherishes as this builds our foundation when we are growing. In our childhood, we were carefree and innocent. We don’t know what jealousy is and have no complexes regarding ourselves and others. It was time for play, studies and vacations. We were gorging on our favourite food without any restrictions, playing pranks on our siblings, and supporting our siblings when we had to face the wrath of our parents. Those days won’t come back, but we can remember those childhood memories.

My Childhood Memories

I have a lot of childhood memories. Here, I will be sharing the one which is the most memorable to me. In my childhood, we used to go to my grandparents’ house at least once a year. We mostly visit my grandparents’ house during my school summer vacation. My grandparents live in a small village which is located near Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh. I wake up early in the morning and go to the farmhouse. Near the farmhouse, we have farming land, where various crops are grown. By that time in the summer, the crops are ready to harvest. I love to see the harvesting process. In the farmhouse, I get prepared by taking a bath in the running water of the tubewell. I love that moment. The cold water and fresh air refresh my mind, and it starts my day full of positive energy.

My grandmother cooks the food in the traditional style by using the “Chulha”, a U-shaped mud stove made from local clay. I love the taste of cooked food. It’s so delicious and yummy. Also, during summer, my grandmother made papad, pickles of mango and green chilli. I just love eating them. We also have one cow and two buffaloes in the farmhouse. Due to this, there is a lot of milk and curd available in my house. It’s my duty to make Lassi, and we drink it every day after having lunch. At night, we sleep on the terrace to feel cool during summer. All my cousins gather at the terrace, and we enjoy it together. Everyone drinks a glass of milk before going to sleep.

Another naughty incident that I remember from my childhood was when I was studying at LKG. My parents had gone for a walk after having dinner at night. They informed me that they would be coming back soon, so I should not lock the door from the inside. I was watching the TV and said ok. After some time, I went to the kitchen to have a glass of water, and I locked the main door. I didn’t realise when I slept while watching the TV. My parents came, and they kept knocking on the door. I didn’t get up, and they had to be outside the home for the whole night. They went to the neighbours’ house and stayed there. In the morning, when I got up, I opened the door and called my parents.

Childhood is the best part of everyone’s life. Childhood memories give us different kinds of experiences. Whatever we have learned in our childhood lasts for a long time. Some experiences are joyful, while some help us learn lessons. These lessons give us the strength to stay positive in life even when situations are not in our favour.

Students must have found this essay on “Childhood Memories” useful for improving their essay writing skills. They can get the study material and the latest update on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams at BYJU’S.

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Essay on memory: (meaning and types).

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Read this Comprehensive Essay on Memory: Meaning, Nature and Types of Memory !

Meaning and Nature :

Memory is one of the important cognitive processes. Memory involves remembering and forgetting.

These are like two faces of a coin. Though these two are opposed to each other by nature, they play an important role in the life of an individual.

Remembering the pleasant experiences makes living happy, and on the other hand remembering unpleasant experiences makes living unhappy and miserable. So here forgetting helps individual to forget unwanted and unpleasant experiences and memories and keeps him happy.

In this way, remembering the pleasant and forgetting the- unpleasant both are essential for normal living. In the case of learners, remembering is very important, because without memory there would be no learning.

If learning has to progress, remembering of what is already learnt is indispensable, otherwise every time the learner has to start from the beginning.

The memory is defined as ‘the power to store experiences and to bring them into the field of consciousness sometime after the experience has occurred’. Our mind has the power of conserving experiences and mentally receiving them whenever such an activity helps the onward progress of the life cycle.

The conserved experience has a unity, an organisation of its own and it colours our present experience.

However, as stated above we have a notion that memory is a single process, but an analysis of it reveals involvement of three different activities- learning, retention and remembering.

This is the first stage of memory. Learning may be by any of the methods like imitation, verbal, motor, conceptual, trial and error, insight, etc. Hence, whatever may be the type of learning; we must pay our attention to retain what is learnt. A good learning is necessary for better retention.

Retention is the process of retaining in mind what is learnt or experienced in the past. The learnt material must be retained in order to make progress in our learning. Psychologists are of the opinion that the learnt material will be retained in the brain in the form of neural traces called ‘memory traces’, or ‘engrams’, or ‘neurograms’.

When good learning takes place –clear engrams are formed, so that they remain for long time and can be remembered by activation of these traces whenever necessary.

Remembering:

It is the process of bringing back the stored or retained information to the conscious level. This may be understood by activities such as recalling, recognising, relearning and reconstruction.

Recalling is the process of reproducing the past experiences that are not present. For example, recalling answers in the examination hall.

Recognising:

It is to recognise a person seen earlier, or the original items seen earlier, from among the items of the same class or category which they are mixed-up.

Relearning:

Relearning is also known as saving method. Because we measure retention in terms of saving in the number of repetition or the time required to relearn the assignment. The difference between the amount of time or trials required for original learning and the one required for relearning indicates the amount of retention.

Reconstruction:

Reconstruction is otherwise called rearrangement. Here the material to learn will be presented in a particular order and then the items will be jumbled up or shuffled thoroughly and presented to the individual to rearrange them in the original order in which it was presented.

Types of Memory :

There are five kinds of memory. These are classified on the basis of rates of decay of the information.

a. Sensory memory:

In this kind of memory, the information received by the sense organs will remain there for a very short period like few seconds. For example, the image on the screen of a TV may appear to be in our eyes for a fraction of time even when it is switched off, or the voice of a person will be tingling in our ears even after the voice is ceased.

b. Short-term memory (STM):

According to many studies, in STM the memory remains in our conscious and pre-conscious level for less than 30 seconds. Later on this will be transferred to long-term memory.

c. Long-term memory (LTM):

LTM has the unlimited capacity to store information which may remain for days, months, years or lifetime.

d. Eidetic memory:

It is otherwise called photographic memory in which the individual can remember a scene or an event in a photographic detail.

e. Episodic memory:

This is otherwise called semantic memory which is connected with episodes of events. The events are stored in the form of episodes and recalled fully in the manner of a sequence.

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The Role of Memories in Humans Life Essay

Introduction, childhood and memories, the importance of memories.

Being children, people do not always think about their memories as there are many things which happen and at the same time there are not many events which deserve remembering. There is an opinion that children’s memory is better as their mind is clear and opened for new knowledge. Growing older people start thinking more, they get more knowledge and they are to remember a lot of things, therefore, their memory becomes weaker, still some childhood recollections remain.

Thinking about personal memories, I understand that most of them are some bright events which impressed me greatly. Most of the events from my childhood have been forgotten. I see how my parents tell some stories from my childhood, but I do not remember such situations. I began to think about the reasons why people remember some episodes from their childhood which seem rather ordinary, but may forget some bright recollections.

For example, I do not remember my first day at school, I do not remember most of my birthdays, but I remember the day when I went to the kindergarten for the first time and when I got acquainted with Mary, a girl I never saw after that day. What are the reasons and the process according to which children’s memories remain in human brain? I am inclined to think that we remember not events but emotions, and if an adult remembers an event from his/her childhood, it is obvious that this very situation has impressed him/her greatly.

Human memories are unstable and limited. People may remember something and when this recollection becomes unimportant it is forgotten. Human brain is flexible, the processes which occur there are not studied up to the end. Dwelling upon children and their memories, it is possible to say that most of them are based on emotions. All the recollections I have from my childhood are impressive. Some of the emotions are positive, others are negative, however, they are strong.

Trying to remember an ordinary day from my childhood where nothing happened, I understood that it is difficult for me. Moreover, it is hard for me to remember what I ate a couple of week on breakfast. Why? I suppose the reason is because it is unimportant.

Children’s memories are based on personal feelings and emotions and it is by no means correct. I remember the day when I was about 4-5 years old. I was playing in the yard, as usual. One girl came to me, she was of my age. She asked whether I would like to play with her. Why would I reject? We shared some toys. I do not remember exactly what they were. She was very serious, however talkative and funny. She told me that playing with children may be a very complicated thing, sometimes impossible. I remember that I was surprised, but I was too small to think about it and we continued playing. When she left that day I never saw her again.

When I was a child that day was interesting for me, nothing more. This episode appeared in my mind several years ago when I saw a TV program about children with rare diseases. There was a boy whose skin was covered with hematoma. He had a disease when even a touch made him feel terrible pain and a place of touch was covered with numerous hematomas. This was the moment when I remembered my childhood and that episode with a girl. I remembered that surprise and inability to understand I experienced, that specific feeling of ignorance. Now, I felt the same feeling. I do not know what it means to be unable to play with others, and this was exactly the feeling I experienced in childhood.

Recollecting childhood memories in an adult age, we usually do it through emotions. When we hear some songs from cartoons we usually remember the time when we saw these cartoons. A man is able to remember through smell, sound, and touch. I am sure that most people have ever experienced that feeling when some situation in the present helped them return to their childhood. All these recollections appear through emotional condition. First, we remember the emotion and then the surrounding environment appears in memory.

Memories are very important in the life of people as they help adults know that all the actions leave imprint. No matter how much time passes, all what we do, feel, and think today will leave its recollection. The situation with that girl was very important in my life. I did not realize it up to the time I saw that TV program and understood that the feeling of fear to be unable to play with others followed me the whole my life.

When I got acquainted with people I tied to spend as much time with them as possible. I always spend my free time with my family and friends I am really afraid of the situations when I will be limited in dealing with them. I have never understood why I felt in such a way, and now I see what the reasons is. All our actions and situations in childhood impress us greater than we may think.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 9). The Role of Memories in Humans Life. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-memories-in-humans-life/

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1. IvyPanda . "The Role of Memories in Humans Life." February 9, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-memories-in-humans-life/.

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IvyPanda . "The Role of Memories in Humans Life." February 9, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-memories-in-humans-life/.

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Essay on Why Are Memories Important

Students are often asked to write an essay on Why Are Memories Important in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Why Are Memories Important

What are memories.

Memories are like a big box where we keep all the moments of our lives. They can be happy or sad, but all are very important. They help us remember who we are and where we come from.

Learning from the Past

Memories teach us lessons. When we remember a mistake, it helps us not to do it again. They are like guides that help us make better choices.

Connecting with Others

Sharing memories brings people closer. When we tell our friends or family about something we remember, it helps us understand each other better.

Keeping Traditions Alive

Memories keep traditions going. Every family has its own special way of celebrating things, and remembering these times helps keep the traditions alive for new generations.

250 Words Essay on Why Are Memories Important

Memories: our lifeline to the past.

Memories are the cornerstones of our lives, shaping who we are and creating the tapestry of our past. They act as our lifeline to experiences, relationships, and moments that have molded us into the individuals we are today.

Moments that Define Us

Each memory holds a piece of our personal history. It can be a joyous recollection of a childhood adventure, a heart-warming moment shared with loved ones, or a bittersweet remembrance of a challenge overcome. These moments, both big and small, contribute to the rich narrative of our lives.

Memories and Identity

Our memories play a crucial role in shaping our identity. They define our values, beliefs, and preferences. By remembering significant life events, we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the people we have become. Memories help us navigate the complexities of life, drawing upon lessons learned from the past to make informed decisions for the future.

A Bridge to Our Loved Ones

Memories are the bridge that connects us to our loved ones, both near and far. Recalling shared experiences with family and friends strengthens our bonds and creates a sense of community. Whether it’s reminiscing about a family vacation or cherishing the memory of a departed loved one, memories keep their spirits alive in our hearts.

Memories are the threads that weave the fabric of our lives, giving them meaning and purpose. They shape our identity, connect us to our loved ones, and provide lessons for personal growth. By embracing our memories, both joyful and sorrowful, we cultivate a richer and more fulfilling existence.

500 Words Essay on Why Are Memories Important

Our source of identity.

Memories shape our identity by connecting us to our past experiences, shaping our beliefs, and influencing our decisions. They provide a sense of continuity and purpose, helping us understand who we are and where we come from. Memories allow us to learn from our mistakes and triumphs, guiding us toward personal growth.

Bonding and Relationships

Memories play a crucial role in building and maintaining relationships. They form the foundation of shared experiences, creating a sense of intimacy and connection. Whether it’s reminiscing about childhood adventures with friends or cherishing life moments with loved ones, memories strengthen our bonds and make relationships more meaningful.

Lessons from the Past

Memories serve as a valuable source of lessons and insights. They help us learn from our mistakes and successes, equipping us with knowledge and wisdom to navigate future challenges. By reflecting on past experiences, we can identify patterns, make better decisions, and avoid repeating errors.

Creativity and Inspiration

Memories fuel creativity by providing a rich tapestry of experiences to draw upon. Artists, writers, and musicians often find inspiration in their memories, transforming them into beautiful works of art. Memories can spark innovative ideas, helping us solve problems and create new possibilities.

Sense of Belonging

Memories connect us to our communities and create a sense of belonging. They remind us of our shared history, traditions, and values. Celebrating cultural festivals, honoring ancestors, and passing down family stories all contribute to a sense of continuity and belonging, strengthening the fabric of our communities.

Memories are the threads that weave the tapestry of our lives, providing meaning, purpose, and connection. They shape our identity, enrich our relationships, teach us valuable lessons, inspire creativity, and foster a sense of belonging. As we navigate the journey of life, it is the memories we create and cherish that truly matter.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life

500 Words Essay On Memorable Day of My Life

We have different types of days in our lives, some are ordinary while some are special. There are some days that get etched in our memories forever. Likewise, I also have a memorable day of my life that is very dear to me. The memories of this day are engraved in my heart and will remain so forever.

My Birthday- Memorable Day of My Life

My tenth birthday is the most memorable day of my life. It is a day I can never forget and I consider it to be the best birthday yet. The day started just like any other normal day. However, as it kept progressing, a lot of exciting things began to happen.

I woke up very early on my birthday because I had to dress up in casual clothes for school . The day before, all my candies were ready that I would distribute in the classroom.

My mother prepared my favourite breakfast and gave me a big chocolate bar for lunch as well. I went to school and the whole class sang for me and congratulated me. It was the turn to distribute sweets.

My best friend and I went to all the teachers to distribute toffees and we had a great time there. Moreover, it was an incredible feeling. My friends were all singing for me and eager to come to my birthday party later in the evening.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

My Birthday Party

The birthday at my school was memorable but the birthday party at my home made the day even more memorable. Also, my mother invited all my friends from school and the colony to the party.

I received so many presents and we played a lot of games. We played games like musical chairs, tag, egg-and-spoon races, and more. There were so many songs playing so everyone did a special dance too.

The highlight of my birthday party was definitely my huge birthday cake. As I love superheroes, my mother got the cake customized with the superhero theme. It was very tasty too and in my favourite flavour.

I spent a lot of time with my family and friends that day. Everyone liked the return gifts as well and went home with a big smile on their faces.

Conclusion of Essay on Memorable Day of My Life

Therefore, my tenth birthday is the most memorable day of my life. It has given me so many happy memories that will remain with me forever. That day makes me feel blessed and lucky to have all those things in my life.

FAQ on Essay on Memorable Day of My Life

Question 1: What is the meaning of a memorable day?

Answer 1:   When we say memorable, we refer to something that we cannot forget easily or something that left us excited. A memorable day is a day that one can recall easily as it is engraved in the memory.

Question 2: What can be an example of a memorable day?

Answer 2: Some people consider their birthday to be the most memorable day. While some consider it a family trip too. Similarly, some people may find their school picnic or fete to be the most memorable day.

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Essay on Memories | Effect of Memories on our Life

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Memory is the ability of the brain to store and recall information. It’s a vital function that allows us to learn, reason, and function as human beings. Read the following short  essay on memories, types, the function of memories, how good memories are important in our life essay for children and students

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Essay on Memories | Short & Long Essay on Memories, For Students

Memory is a complex process that involves many different parts of the brain. When it comes to remembering, the hippocampus plays an important role in processing memories and sending them to various parts of the brain for long-term storage.

Functions & Types

Memory is divided into two main types:

Sensory memory . This type of memory allows us to briefly retain an impression of sensory information coming in through the different senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). For instance, when you see a familiar face or notice a telephone number on a piece of paper, you’re experiencing sensory memory.

Short-term memory . This is the ability to hold on to newly acquired information for brief periods, usually from a few seconds to a minute or so.

Long-term memory . This is the ability to retain information for relatively long periods, without conscious effort. We use this type of memory when we recall information about ourselves, our past experiences and the world around us.

Affect of Memories on our Lives

Memory is extremely affective in our daily life. It impacts almost every second of the day. Our memories can be affected by our moods, personality characteristics and life experiences.

Bad moods can affect our memories in different ways – especially when it comes to recalling information that’s consistent with the mood we’re in. Our memories can also be affected by our expectations, which can even create completely false memories that seem very real to us.

>>>> Related Post:  Short Speech on Life After School For Students

Some people may be predisposed to having great memory, while others have an average one. It’s important to practice good memorization techniques, because this will help you have a better memory. Long-term memory and short-term memory are both considered long lasting. They’re created in different ways, but can last anywhere from a few days to a lifetime.

Short term memory is created in a process called encoding, which involves processing information and placing it into the proper categories of memory. Then we use retrieval, or calling up information from memory, which strengthens the connections between brain cells created during encoding and creates a more permanent place in memory for that information.

Why we don’t forget childhood memories?

The main reasons include the following:

• Parents reinforce childhood memories by talking about them with their children, taking photographs and preserving other memorabilia.
• Children dream about the experiences they’ve had.
• Retelling of the memories helps to fix the memory trace in our brain, and we tend to rehearse these memories frequently.
• Childhood experiences are often emotionally arousing, which helps them leave a deep impression on our minds.
• These experiences tend to occur during a period of rapid development and change, when the brain is very plastic and highly susceptible to new input.

Impact of Good Memories 

On the contrary, a good memory in a certain situation might lead to positive emotions. The more positive emotions you experience in a certain situation, the more likely you are to remember it with happiness. Moreover, positive emotions might also improve performance in certain tasks.

Whereas the bad memories are closely related with negative emotions. The more intense is the memory, the stronger will be the emotional response coming from it. Then, these emotions might interfere with our daily lives.

For example, if you remember a situation in which you were attacked or betrayed, that memory might be so emotionally upsetting that you become angry or afraid whenever someone gets close to you.

>>>> Related Post:   Essay on Childhood Memories For Students

The memory is an important reinforcement for our life to get along with. They are really important in our life.

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How the brain chooses which memories are important enough to save and which to let fade away

Memory can be mysterious. Certain life events remain clear in our minds no matter how long ago they occurred, while episodes from the prior day may already be fuzzy and difficult to recall.

A study, published Thursday in Science, reveals why this happens. Scientists have found that the brains of humans and other mammals have a system for choosing which life experiences are important enough to be cemented into long-term memory — and which will be allowed to fade away.

Experiments in mice revealed that during waking hours, cells in the brain’s hippocampus spark in a specific pattern called "sharp-wave ripples," which tag important experiences for movement into long-term memory storage during sleep. 

Although the research was performed in mice, certain brain processes have remained almost the same as mammals have evolved, so the findings can tell us a lot about ourselves, said the study’s senior author, Dr. György Buzsáki , Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at NYU Langone Health.

As part of the research, Buzsáki and his colleagues put mice through a maze that had a sugary reward at the end for those that successfully reached it. Meanwhile, the researchers were monitoring the activity of nerve cells through electrodes implanted in the rodent brains that fed data into computer programs.  

They observed that as the mice paused to eat their treats, their brains sparked sharp-wave ripples that were repeated as many as 20 times. The daytime pattern of sharp-wave ripples was replayed during the night, a process that moved the experience into long-term memory.

It's during sleep when experiences from waking hours deemed to be important are converted into enduring memories. 

Events that were followed by very few or no sharp-wave ripples failed to form lasting memories, the researchers noted.

This tagging process during waking hours is totally unconscious, Buzsáki said. “The brain decides on its own, rather than us deciding voluntarily,” he added. 

Relaxation needed for long-term memory

Still, the research suggests there are things we can do to increase the likelihood of a memory being stored permanently.

If, like the mice, we pause after an experience, it may help cement the events into long-term memory, Buzsáki said. We need that period of relaxation , when we’re not paying close attention to anything, to allow sharp-wave ripples to spark. That wakeful process is an essential part of creating a permanent memory .

Practically speaking, this means if you like to binge TV series, you’re not likely to remember much of any episode except the last one you watched, Buzsáki said.

“If you watch a movie and would like to remember it, it’s better to go for a walk afterwards,” Buzsáki said. “No double features.”

An intriguing finding of the new research is the discovery that there could be bursts of activity — the sharp-wave ripples — when the mouse is standing still and its brain is essentially idling, said Daniela Schiller, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

What’s amazing, Schiller said, is the pattern recorded close to the event was the same as what was seen during sleep. And both patterns mimicked the mouse’s real-life experience.

The study showed that events followed by a pause and electrical bursts in the brain are the ones that we will find in long-term memory, said Daphna Shohamy, director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute. If you observe animals, you can see them pausing during the day after a novel or rewarding experience, she said.

“We did a study a few years ago in which we had humans navigate a maze with random objects along the way, looking for a treasure,” Shohamy said. “If they got the treasure, they were more likely to remember the random object they passed along the way.”

Linda Carroll is a regular health contributor to NBC News. She is coauthor of "The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic" and "Out of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and the Unwanted Colt Who Conquered the Sport of Kings." 

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Essay on Memories 3 Models

Last updated Monday , 18-03-2024 on 09:48 pm

Essay on memories, our memories are part of our lives. We go back with our memories to the past, and we remember the happy events in it. There are memories engraved in our minds, feelings hidden in our hearts, and images we kept in our eyes. Our memories are part of the past and they are the source of our happiness in the present.

In Essay on memories we can write our childhood memories, our memories with family and relatives on holidays and occasions, memories of the first school day, the education journey and the success we achieved, memories of the first love, and the first friend, our memories are our past experiences, from which we learned a lot.

Essay on memories

There are many memories in our lives, including beautiful memories that make us stronger, and other memories that contain a lot of pain and make us feel sad, especially if they are memories related to people we have lost.

In fact, there are memories that represent great meaning to us, as they are the best that happened to us in our lives, such as moments of success, or knowing someone else’s feelings towards us.

In Essay on memories, I will write about the importance of memories. We resort to searching for our beautiful memories so that we can bear the difficult circumstances we live in. We also wish that our past lives, especially those that brought us happiness, would return.

Childhood memories

Childhood memories are our most beautiful memories. They are engraved in our minds and hearts. I do not forget the kindness of my father and mother, their love for me, and the gifts they used to buy me. My beautiful toys I spent many times with her, playing with them and talking to them as if they could hear me, my little room, my bed and my desk.

I sat at this desk for several years studying my lessons, writing down my assignments, everything in my room had a fond memory in my mind and in my heart.

I like the writer’s saying: “ Winter is cold for those who do not have warm memories. ” Fyodor Dostoevsky. I remember the first school day very well, and in the Essay on memories I will write about the memories of that day. I felt a mixture of feelings, feelings of fear and feelings of joy. It’s my first day at school, I feel scared because it’s a new place, and I feel happy because I started the learning stage, and I quickly got used to school, and I became a top student in my studies.

In childhood, we get love and attention from our family, and this leaves a beautiful memory inside us throughout life. The feeling of security is the best feeling that a person needs, and that is why we always remember the childhood stage, and we feel happy and wish it would come back again, as our parents used to provide us with everything we need.

In childhood, we do not take responsibility and do not think of anything other than fun and play.

And Nibal Qundus says: “ The children, despite their innocence and angelic nature, never forget the offense. Beware of leaving bad memories for them. “

Teenage memories

Memories of adolescence are among the beautiful memories that remain hidden inside us for life. At this stage, I had successful and failed experiences. It is the stage in which I rebelled against receiving orders from my parents, and tried to rely on myself and make difficult decisions.

Sometimes I made the right decisions, and other times I made the wrong ones, so it is important to consult our parents and benefit from their advice.

In Essay on memories I will write some of my teenage memories. In adolescence I had many friendships, some of these friends were good, and therefore this friendship continued until now, but some friends were bad, and they caused me a lot of harm, so I moved away from them.

And there are people I love, but we parted because of education, or travel. These people are still present in my memory, and I cannot forget the beautiful times I spent with them. My memories of middle school and high school I can never forget, as they constitute the largest part of my memories, and at this stage I was exposed to many situations.

These situations are what formed my personality, this stage in which major changes occur in a person’s life. Therefore, it is full of experiences and difficult situations, and this stage is when we make true friendships, and these friendships may last a lifetime.

Adolescence is a period of strength, growth and aspiration to achieve dreams. Munther Al-Qabbani says: “ The most important thing that a person carries with him through life is memories, both sweet and bitter. “

In Essay on memories, why do we relive our memories?

Everyone has different memories, happy or otherwise, and in all cases we benefit from reliving our memories.

Beautiful memories bring happiness to our souls, and improve our psychological state, and therefore we should remember the beautiful things in our lives, such as our living with the family, the mother’s love, the father’s kindness, spending quality time with brothers and sisters, adventures and trips, the places we went to with people we love, Every beautiful thing we lived in the past will make us happy when we remember it.

Many times we don’t recall memories, but rather they come suddenly and we find ourselves smiling. A person carries within him the memories of a lifetime, and it is difficult for anyone to see them. They are special memories that provide you with feelings of love and happiness, and help you to continue progressing in life with some hope.

I like to remember all the beautiful things that happened to me in the past, they are my memories that I live by, and this does not mean that the present is bad, but the moments of happiness that we lived in the past are not repeated.

I like this saying: “ Be careful who you make memories with, because those things last a lifetime. “

Socrates the philosopher.

In the conclusion of the Essay on memories, Mark Twain says: “ Memories are something above the will, above the heart, above the feelings, that is why they are unforgettable .”

You should know that our memories are part of us, through these memories our personality was formed, and some of these memories make us feel proud of the success we have achieved in our lives.

And some memories are painful and cause us some sadness, but we have benefited from it, and we are good to ourselves, our private memories are ours, and we should not talk about them with others. It is a summary of our experiences in life, we lived it honestly, and we learned from it, and in many cases we failed and tried again in order to reach success.

In conclusion, Essay on memories, I hope you have benefited.

To read more, click on the following link:

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Kurt Cobain: Your memories 30 years after his death

Yahoo readers share where they were when they heard cobain had died, and how nirvana makes them feel today..

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It was 30 years ago Friday that Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, wracked by pain, addiction and depression, retreated to a greenhouse above the garage of his Seattle home and took his own life.

April 5, 1994. He was 27.

Family, friends and fans had known that Cobain was in trouble for some time. But that didn’t lessen the loss of a singer, guitarist and songwriter who had become an (unwilling) icon seemingly overnight.

To mark the 30th anniversary of Cobain’s death, Yahoo Entertainment gathered memories of the Nirvana frontman from readers like you.

Here are some of your most vivid and moving responses. They have been edited for length and clarity.

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?

CHRISTINE C., 41: I was in my basement watching MTV and MTV News came on with Kurt Loder . For some reason, as soon as I saw a picture of Kurt I knew. It crushed me nonetheless.

MARCO, 41: Loder said that the body of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain had been found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home in Seattle. I remember it physically. It felt like my stomach had dropped. It actually hurt the moment I heard that news. I don't remember much after that to be honest, but that particular news and that pain I'll remember forever.

DREW H., 43: I was in junior high. The day after we heard, two of my friends wore prom dresses to school in honor of Kurt.

KIM, 44: I cried and thought about his daughter and how awful it would be to grow up without a dad. It was the first real death of a personality that I cared about, and the fact that it was a suicide was even worse because I was 14 and didn't understand it. I remember being in a haze for a few hours after.

DANI, 45: I was a senior in high school and we had a senior lounge. I was there when one of my friends heard the news and started crying hysterically. Back then, we didn't have phones or social media, so to this day I'm not sure how she heard about it.

JILL, 47: Girls who were listening to New Kids on the Block only a year previously were crying at school.

ZACH ZIMMERMAN, 44: My dad and I were on a bike ride which was taking us the entire way around Lake Washington. Twenty some miles in, we were riding along Lake Washington Blvd. and came across a police blockade. We were confused at first what had happened and weren’t aware of any events that day. Finally we found a side street and were allowed to ride through and one police officer told us what had happened. We rode by the front of the house and several more police cars and other emergency responders were there.

CHRIS, 45: I remember how his loss made my own mortality feel real. It's all my friends and I talked about for weeks. I bought two giant flags containing his suicide note and death certificate and they stayed on my wall until I moved out of my parents' place.

LEELEE, 56: About six friends and I were sitting around playing pool at a bar in Seattle, having some cocktails. Oddly enough, Nirvana was blasting from what I assume was the "jukebox." It was a sports bar, so there were a lot of TVs with sports playing. All of a sudden the TVs weren't showing sports anymore. They were showing flashes of Kurt Cobain. Then I heard the sobbing. Some folks were screaming. The TV stayed on the rest of the night in the bar. Nobody left where they sat.

JOHN CROWLEY, 59: It was eerie at the time, eerie when I look back. I was browsing the bins at Tower Records in Berkeley. The music on the store sound system stopped, and there was a distinct pause without a subsequent song beginning. Then an employee announced that Kurt Cobain had died. It was very brief. No details, repeated once to make sure people understood what they'd just heard. Music did not resume. People kind of shuffled out of the store, quietly.

LEE, 50: I was driving down a street in Lexington, Ky., when a DJ came on the radio and said, “A body was discovered in Kurt Cobain's home.” My initial thought was that Kurt Cobain had murdered someone. When it was revealed what actually happened, I guess I was more confused than anything. Like, “Why would he do that?”

MELISSA HOLTZE, 47: I was a senior in high school. I was visiting my mom in Lahaina, Maui, a few months before I was about to move out there permanently after graduation. We were sitting for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Kurt was up on one of the many TVs that used to play MTV videos constantly. I looked up and said, “Ugh, I still love him so much!” My mom looked at me with a very serious look and said, “ You don’t know, do you?” I did not. I had been traveling when he took his life, and this was way before we had instant news at our fingertips. I was devastated.

How did you discover Nirvana?

JENNIFER, 50: I had been lucky enough to see Nirvana play in a nearly empty local club in the fall of 1991. I hadn’t heard of them before; I remember it was a Wednesday night, and I only went because there was nothing else going on. But I knew I was witnessing the start of something huge.

WILLIAM DEBRIS, 57: It was all hair bands. I was driving by a large cemetery and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came on the radio. K.C. had one metal station and this was new. I pulled over and banged my head to this revelation — this raw, melodic rage anthem. I knew right then music had just changed forever. And I couldn't have been happier.

CHRIS, 45: I first saw the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and I remember how different it felt from everything else that was going on. The Seattle thing was still very young and special. Within days of seeing that video I was at dinner at a Wendy's, and my older cousin told me she had already bought the CD of Nevermind . I was so jealous. I didn't have a CD player yet, so I couldn't wait until the next time my family was going to her house. It was the longest two or three weeks of my life, and when I finally went over, I came ready with a stack of blank cassettes in hand. She and I spent all night poring over the half-written lyrics in the insert and trying to identify which of those lyrics went with which songs.

DAN, 46: Kurt was well-read, antiracist, a feminist and his lyrics could be absurd and nonsensical in a somehow subversive way. Those qualities were very appealing to a bookish misfit like I was.

PATRICK B., 50: I saw them at the Vatican in Houston a month after Nevermind came out. I worked at Toys R Us and there was a girl I liked there. I had an extra ticket, and I asked if she had heard of Nirvana. She had not heard of them, so I asked her to go. She pretty much freaked out after the show. She probably has the best “discover Nirvana” story: "This guy at work, don't even remember his name, asked me to go to a concert. I had never heard of the band, there were less than 800 people there. Ended up being Nirvana!"

JOHN L., 46: The first time I heard Nirvana was at a dance in junior high. The DJ played “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and of course the guys started moshing. I was short and weak and got knocked to the ground instantly!

SUMMER, 46: I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music. My parents were very religious and strict. But I heard Nirvana at a friend’s house. I was hooked on the music and would borrow tapes from my friends and sneak listening to the music on my Walkman. Of course I was caught, the music was confiscated and I got a month of restriction — but it was worth it. I would borrow another tape just to be caught again.

What did Cobain mean to you then?

WILLIAM DEBRIS, 57: I had just seen Nirvana in October 1993 at a smaller venue in Kansas, six months before he died. They played for almost three hours. At the end of the concert Kurt sat on the stage and was just grinding on his guitar — no melody, no song, just grinding on it loudly. He looked up and said, "You guys would listen to this shit all night," and then he got up and walked off the stage. And yes, Kurt, we would have, just to keep seeing you play.

MARK, 39: The [MTV] Unplugged performance got me. It's probably my first memory of adults being sad and honest at the same time. In my house, those things were mutually exclusive.

CHRIS, 45: Kurt Cobain was an enigma — a figure I couldn't really understand but desperately wanted to. I felt that I didn't really fit into the world in general and here was a whole genre that was there to welcome me.

CLAYTON C., 42: I am an African American male and grew up listening to soul, R&B, pop and hip-hop. But I was part of a busing program that led to me going to a predominately white school on the other side of town. My classmates were wearing Green Day, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins T-shirts and listening to all of their music. It was a door to a whole other world that I didn’t know much about.

RYAN, 47: Nirvana was by far my favorite band. I learned to play guitar by trying to figure out Nirvana songs. In high school, some kids even referred to me as "Nirvana" rather than my name because I was so obsessed with the band.

ADAM REHMEIER, 47: Kurt was able to channel from the purest place. I think he would cringe to be compared to the Beatles, because he loved them so much and they're obviously the biggest band to ever exist. But the fact is, he was a game changer. He was absolutely selfless, choosing to bring attention to smaller bands who were his idols and championing them when he was literally the biggest rock star in the world. He also was a pioneer for speaking out against violence towards women, people of color and the LGBTQ community.

JILL, 47: Outcasts and misfits recognize one another; Kurt was one. He didn’t pander, even to his misfit peers. Then the jocks and New Kids fans found Nirvana. It changed everything. The kids who had always snickered at us were now asking where we bought our clothes.

What does Cobain mean to you today?

GREG, 47: I stop everything I’m doing when a Nirvana song is on.

CHRISTINE C. 41: If anything I admire him more. Being fake and conformist was not his thing. Hard and admirable to do.

KEVIN EASTER, 56: I think the biggest difference is now I feel tremendous sadness sometimes when I listen. I think of him leaving his wife and child behind — how difficult that had to be and then how much pain he must have felt to take his life and leave them that way. I feel more empathetic towards him and the demons he couldn't outrun.

JUD, 39: He paved the way for my own exploration of music and music experimentalism. He was my introduction to feminism and the idea of being an ally to the LGBTQ community. He was my biggest role model as a teenager. He helped me get through school; he made me realize it was OK to be weird and different.

DAVID, 45: Cobain fed my insatiable curiosity to learn more and dig deeper, to read liner notes and love the bands behind the bands. To be honest, my musical tastes have mellowed, but the idea of Nirvana is still as important to me as it always was.

JOHN L., 46: The first day back to school after spring break, I was in math class talking to classmates who were also Nirvana fans about what had happened. We did not want to be there, but talking about Kurt openly with other people was comforting. Years later I found out one of the girls I talked to that day in math class also tragically took her own life. Whenever I think about Kurt or listen to his music, I also think of my high school classmate.

DANIEL F., 54: When I came out after college, I was in a good place with it because of people like Kurt, who seemed like he wouldn't care one way or the other. There is a photo of RuPaul holding Frances Bean , with Kurt, dwarfed by this glamazon, smiling and accepting. It made me feel accepted too — that being gay was normal.

MARCO, 41: Now, at 41, I look at Kurt and I see the young man. What I thought was cool and rebellious as a teenager, I now see as kind of insufferable. I still love Nirvana and still count Kurt as one of my heroes, but I have shed my rose-colored glasses and see Kurt as what he always was — a guy who had flaws, like we all do.

JILL, 47: Now as an adult, I hear the brilliance outshine the pain. As a mother, I wish he experienced the joys of watching his child grow up. I wonder what a wiser, more experienced Kurt would write today, even if he kept it only for himself.

LEELEE. 56: Seattle, the grunge scene, everything around that time — those years were the best of my life. Now I'm fighting for my life with cancer. I believe listening to Nirvana would make me feel some pain I don't want to feel right now.

ANONYMOUS, 45: It is strange to remember him. I blocked any singular memory of my time listening to his music. Now that I'm an adult and know how he felt about it all and how much fame affected him, I have decided to let him rest. I buried my Nirvana music a long time ago and wished him peace. I hope he is at peace.

DAN, 46: My kids are 8 and 5. It's fun to watch their reaction to Nirvana. It's primal. They head-bang and run around the living room like animals. There is something in Kurt’s music that goes right to your heart, mind and nervous system.

MARK ROGERS, 55: When music is that good, nobody should be surprised if future generations tune in.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

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The Case for Marrying an Older Man

A woman’s life is all work and little rest. an age gap relationship can help..

In the summer, in the south of France, my husband and I like to play, rather badly, the lottery. We take long, scorching walks to the village — gratuitous beauty, gratuitous heat — kicking up dust and languid debates over how we’d spend such an influx. I purchase scratch-offs, jackpot tickets, scraping the former with euro coins in restaurants too fine for that. I never cash them in, nor do I check the winning numbers. For I already won something like the lotto, with its gifts and its curses, when he married me.

He is ten years older than I am. I chose him on purpose, not by chance. As far as life decisions go, on balance, I recommend it.

When I was 20 and a junior at Harvard College, a series of great ironies began to mock me. I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting. I shared it with the average, idle young woman shrugging down the street. The thought, when it descended on me, jolted my perspective, the way a falling leaf can make you look up: I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early.

So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors. I had high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out. Apologies to Progress, but older men still desired those things.

I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence. Each time I reconsidered the project, it struck me as more reasonable. Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower? Why assume the burdens of womanhood, its too-quick-to-vanish upper hand, but not its brief benefits at least? Perhaps it came easier to avoid the topic wholesale than to accept that women really do have a tragically short window of power, and reason enough to take advantage of that fact while they can. As for me, I liked history, Victorian novels, knew of imminent female pitfalls from all the books I’d read: vampiric boyfriends; labor, at the office and in the hospital, expected simultaneously; a decline in status as we aged, like a looming eclipse. I’d have disliked being called calculating, but I had, like all women, a calculator in my head. I thought it silly to ignore its answers when they pointed to an unfairness for which we really ought to have been preparing.

I was competitive by nature, an English-literature student with all the corresponding major ambitions and minor prospects (Great American novel; email job). A little Bovarist , frantic for new places and ideas; to travel here, to travel there, to be in the room where things happened. I resented the callow boys in my class, who lusted after a particular, socially sanctioned type on campus: thin and sexless, emotionally detached and socially connected, the opposite of me. Restless one Saturday night, I slipped on a red dress and snuck into a graduate-school event, coiling an HDMI cord around my wrist as proof of some technical duty. I danced. I drank for free, until one of the organizers asked me to leave. I called and climbed into an Uber. Then I promptly climbed out of it. For there he was, emerging from the revolving doors. Brown eyes, curved lips, immaculate jacket. I went to him, asked him for a cigarette. A date, days later. A second one, where I discovered he was a person, potentially my favorite kind: funny, clear-eyed, brilliant, on intimate terms with the universe.

I used to love men like men love women — that is, not very well, and with a hunger driven only by my own inadequacies. Not him. In those early days, I spoke fondly of my family, stocked the fridge with his favorite pasta, folded his clothes more neatly than I ever have since. I wrote his mother a thank-you note for hosting me in his native France, something befitting a daughter-in-law. It worked; I meant it. After graduation and my fellowship at Oxford, I stayed in Europe for his career and married him at 23.

Of course I just fell in love. Romances have a setting; I had only intervened to place myself well. Mainly, I spotted the precise trouble of being a woman ahead of time, tried to surf it instead of letting it drown me on principle. I had grown bored of discussions of fair and unfair, equal or unequal , and preferred instead to consider a thing called ease.

The reception of a particular age-gap relationship depends on its obviousness. The greater and more visible the difference in years and status between a man and a woman, the more it strikes others as transactional. Transactional thinking in relationships is both as American as it gets and the least kosher subject in the American romantic lexicon. When a 50-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman walk down the street, the questions form themselves inside of you; they make you feel cynical and obscene: How good of a deal is that? Which party is getting the better one? Would I take it? He is older. Income rises with age, so we assume he has money, at least relative to her; at minimum, more connections and experience. She has supple skin. Energy. Sex. Maybe she gets a Birkin. Maybe he gets a baby long after his prime. The sight of their entwined hands throws a lucid light on the calculations each of us makes, in love, to varying degrees of denial. You could get married in the most romantic place in the world, like I did, and you would still have to sign a contract.

Twenty and 30 is not like 30 and 40; some freshness to my features back then, some clumsiness in my bearing, warped our decade, in the eyes of others, to an uncrossable gulf. Perhaps this explains the anger we felt directed at us at the start of our relationship. People seemed to take us very, very personally. I recall a hellish car ride with a friend of his who began to castigate me in the backseat, in tones so low that only I could hear him. He told me, You wanted a rich boyfriend. You chased and snuck into parties . He spared me the insult of gold digger, but he drew, with other words, the outline for it. Most offended were the single older women, my husband’s classmates. They discussed me in the bathroom at parties when I was in the stall. What does he see in her? What do they talk about? They were concerned about me. They wielded their concern like a bludgeon. They paraphrased without meaning to my favorite line from Nabokov’s Lolita : “You took advantage of my disadvantage,” suspecting me of some weakness he in turn mined. It did not disturb them, so much, to consider that all relationships were trades. The trouble was the trade I’d made struck them as a bad one.

The truth is you can fall in love with someone for all sorts of reasons, tiny transactions, pluses and minuses, whose sum is your affection for each other, your loyalty, your commitment. The way someone picks up your favorite croissant. Their habit of listening hard. What they do for you on your anniversary and your reciprocal gesture, wrapped thoughtfully. The serenity they inspire; your happiness, enlivening it. When someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them.

When I think of same-age, same-stage relationships, what I tend to picture is a woman who is doing too much for too little.

I’m 27 now, and most women my age have “partners.” These days, girls become partners quite young. A partner is supposed to be a modern answer to the oppression of marriage, the terrible feeling of someone looming over you, head of a household to which you can only ever be the neck. Necks are vulnerable. The problem with a partner, however, is if you’re equal in all things, you compromise in all things. And men are too skilled at taking .

There is a boy out there who knows how to floss because my friend taught him. Now he kisses college girls with fresh breath. A boy married to my friend who doesn’t know how to pack his own suitcase. She “likes to do it for him.” A million boys who know how to touch a woman, who go to therapy because they were pushed, who learned fidelity, boundaries, decency, manners, to use a top sheet and act humanely beneath it, to call their mothers, match colors, bring flowers to a funeral and inhale, exhale in the face of rage, because some girl, some girl we know, some girl they probably don’t speak to and will never, ever credit, took the time to teach him. All while she was working, raising herself, clawing up the cliff-face of adulthood. Hauling him at her own expense.

I find a post on Reddit where five thousand men try to define “ a woman’s touch .” They describe raised flower beds, blankets, photographs of their loved ones, not hers, sprouting on the mantel overnight. Candles, coasters, side tables. Someone remembering to take lint out of the dryer. To give compliments. I wonder what these women are getting back. I imagine them like Cinderella’s mice, scurrying around, their sole proof of life their contributions to a more central character. On occasion I meet a nice couple, who grew up together. They know each other with a fraternalism tender and alien to me.  But I think of all my friends who failed at this, were failed at this, and I think, No, absolutely not, too risky . Riskier, sometimes, than an age gap.

My younger brother is in his early 20s, handsome, successful, but in many ways: an endearing disaster. By his age, I had long since wisened up. He leaves his clothes in the dryer, takes out a single shirt, steams it for three minutes. His towel on the floor, for someone else to retrieve. His lovely, same-age girlfriend is aching to fix these tendencies, among others. She is capable beyond words. Statistically, they will not end up together. He moved into his first place recently, and she, the girlfriend, supplied him with a long, detailed list of things he needed for his apartment: sheets, towels, hangers, a colander, which made me laugh. She picked out his couch. I will bet you anything she will fix his laundry habits, and if so, they will impress the next girl. If they break up, she will never see that couch again, and he will forget its story. I tell her when I visit because I like her, though I get in trouble for it: You shouldn’t do so much for him, not for someone who is not stuck with you, not for any boy, not even for my wonderful brother.

Too much work had left my husband, by 30, jaded and uninspired. He’d burned out — but I could reenchant things. I danced at restaurants when they played a song I liked. I turned grocery shopping into an adventure, pleased by what I provided. Ambitious, hungry, he needed someone smart enough to sustain his interest, but flexible enough in her habits to build them around his hours. I could. I do: read myself occupied, make myself free, materialize beside him when he calls for me. In exchange, I left a lucrative but deadening spreadsheet job to write full-time, without having to live like a writer. I learned to cook, a little, and decorate, somewhat poorly. Mostly I get to read, to walk central London and Miami and think in delicious circles, to work hard, when necessary, for free, and write stories for far less than minimum wage when I tally all the hours I take to write them.

At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self, couldn’t imagine doing it in tandem with someone, two raw lumps of clay trying to mold one another and only sullying things worse. I’d go on dates with boys my age and leave with the impression they were telling me not about themselves but some person who didn’t exist yet and on whom I was meant to bet regardless. My husband struck me instead as so finished, formed. Analyzable for compatibility. He bore the traces of other women who’d improved him, small but crucial basics like use a coaster ; listen, don’t give advice. Young egos mellow into patience and generosity.

My husband isn’t my partner. He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did. Adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations. But his logistics ran so smoothly that he simply tacked mine on. I moved into his flat, onto his level, drag and drop, cleaner thrice a week, bills automatic. By opting out of partnership in my 20s, I granted myself a kind of compartmentalized, liberating selfishness none of my friends have managed. I am the work in progress, the party we worry about, a surprising dominance. When I searched for my first job, at 21, we combined our efforts, for my sake. He had wisdom to impart, contacts with whom he arranged coffees; we spent an afternoon, laughing, drawing up earnest lists of my pros and cons (highly sociable; sloppy math). Meanwhile, I took calls from a dear friend who had a boyfriend her age. Both savagely ambitious, hyperclose and entwined in each other’s projects. If each was a start-up , the other was the first hire, an intense dedication I found riveting. Yet every time she called me, I hung up with the distinct feeling that too much was happening at the same time: both learning to please a boss; to forge more adult relationships with their families; to pay bills and taxes and hang prints on the wall. Neither had any advice to give and certainly no stability. I pictured a three-legged race, two people tied together and hobbling toward every milestone.

I don’t fool myself. My marriage has its cons. There are only so many times one can say “thank you” — for splendid scenes, fine dinners — before the phrase starts to grate. I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that shapes the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him. He doesn’t have to hold it over my head. It just floats there, complicating usual shorthands to explain dissatisfaction like, You aren’t being supportive lately . It’s a Frenchism to say, “Take a decision,” and from time to time I joke: from whom? Occasionally I find myself in some fabulous country at some fabulous party and I think what a long way I have traveled, like a lucky cloud, and it is frightening to think of oneself as vapor.

Mostly I worry that if he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive, but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials, the way Renaissance painters hid in their paintings their faces among a crowd. I wonder if when they looked at their paintings, they saw their own faces first. But this is the wrong question, if our aim is happiness. Like the other question on which I’m expected to dwell: Who is in charge, the man who drives or the woman who put him there so she could enjoy herself? I sit in the car, in the painting it would have taken me a corporate job and 20 years to paint alone, and my concern over who has the upper hand becomes as distant as the horizon, the one he and I made so wide for me.

To be a woman is to race against the clock, in several ways, until there is nothing left to be but run ragged.

We try to put it off, but it will hit us at some point: that we live in a world in which our power has a different shape from that of men, a different distribution of advantage, ours a funnel and theirs an expanding cone. A woman at 20 rarely has to earn her welcome; a boy at 20 will be turned away at the door. A woman at 30 may find a younger woman has taken her seat; a man at 30 will have invited her. I think back to the women in the bathroom, my husband’s classmates. What was my relationship if not an inconvertible sign of this unfairness? What was I doing, in marrying older, if not endorsing it? I had taken advantage of their disadvantage. I had preempted my own. After all, principled women are meant to defy unfairness, to show some integrity or denial, not plan around it, like I had. These were driven women, successful, beautiful, capable. I merely possessed the one thing they had already lost. In getting ahead of the problem, had I pushed them down? If I hadn’t, would it really have made any difference?

When we decided we wanted to be equal to men, we got on men’s time. We worked when they worked, retired when they retired, had to squeeze pregnancy, children, menopause somewhere impossibly in the margins. I have a friend, in her late 20s, who wears a mood ring; these days it is often red, flickering in the air like a siren when she explains her predicament to me. She has raised her fair share of same-age boyfriends. She has put her head down, worked laboriously alongside them, too. At last she is beginning to reap the dividends, earning the income to finally enjoy herself. But it is now, exactly at this precipice of freedom and pleasure, that a time problem comes closing in. If she would like to have children before 35, she must begin her next profession, motherhood, rather soon, compromising inevitably her original one. The same-age partner, equally unsettled in his career, will take only the minimum time off, she guesses, or else pay some cost which will come back to bite her. Everything unfailingly does. If she freezes her eggs to buy time, the decision and its logistics will burden her singly — and perhaps it will not work. Overlay the years a woman is supposed to establish herself in her career and her fertility window and it’s a perfect, miserable circle. By midlife women report feeling invisible, undervalued; it is a telling cliché, that after all this, some husbands leave for a younger girl. So when is her time, exactly? For leisure, ease, liberty? There is no brand of feminism which achieved female rest. If women’s problem in the ’50s was a paralyzing malaise, now it is that they are too active, too capable, never permitted a vacation they didn’t plan. It’s not that our efforts to have it all were fated for failure. They simply weren’t imaginative enough.

For me, my relationship, with its age gap, has alleviated this rush , permitted me to massage the clock, shift its hands to my benefit. Very soon, we will decide to have children, and I don’t panic over last gasps of fun, because I took so many big breaths of it early: on the holidays of someone who had worked a decade longer than I had, in beautiful places when I was young and beautiful, a symmetry I recommend. If such a thing as maternal energy exists, mine was never depleted. I spent the last nearly seven years supported more than I support and I am still not as old as my husband was when he met me. When I have a child, I will expect more help from him than I would if he were younger, for what does professional tenure earn you if not the right to set more limits on work demands — or, if not, to secure some child care, at the very least? When I return to work after maternal upheaval, he will aid me, as he’s always had, with his ability to put himself aside, as younger men are rarely able.

Above all, the great gift of my marriage is flexibility. A chance to live my life before I become responsible for someone else’s — a lover’s, or a child’s. A chance to write. A chance at a destiny that doesn’t adhere rigidly to the routines and timelines of men, but lends itself instead to roomy accommodation, to the very fluidity Betty Friedan dreamed of in 1963 in The Feminine Mystique , but we’ve largely forgotten: some career or style of life that “permits year-to-year variation — a full-time paid job in one community, part-time in another, exercise of the professional skill in serious volunteer work or a period of study during pregnancy or early motherhood when a full-time job is not feasible.” Some things are just not feasible in our current structures. Somewhere along the way we stopped admitting that, and all we did was make women feel like personal failures. I dream of new structures, a world in which women have entry-level jobs in their 30s; alternate avenues for promotion; corporate ladders with balconies on which they can stand still, have a smoke, take a break, make a baby, enjoy themselves, before they keep climbing. Perhaps men long for this in their own way. Actually I am sure of that.

Once, when we first fell in love, I put my head in his lap on a long car ride; I remember his hands on my face, the sun, the twisting turns of a mountain road, surprising and not surprising us like our romance, and his voice, telling me that it was his biggest regret that I was so young, he feared he would lose me. Last week, we looked back at old photos and agreed we’d given each other our respective best years. Sometimes real equality is not so obvious, sometimes it takes turns, sometimes it takes almost a decade to reveal itself.

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Guest Essay

How the SAT Changed My Life

By Emi Nietfeld

Ms. Nietfeld is the author of the memoir “Acceptance.”

This month, the University of Texas, Austin, joined the wave of selective schools reversing Covid-era test-optional admissions policies, once again requiring applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores.

Many colleges have embraced the test-optional rule under the assumption that it bolsters equity and diversity, since higher scores are correlated with privilege. But it turns out that these policies harmed the teenagers they were supposed to help. Many low-income and minority applicants withheld scores that could have gotten them in, wrongly assuming that their scores were too low, according to an analysis by Dartmouth. More top universities are sure to join the reversal. This is a good thing.

I was one of the disadvantaged youths who are often failed by test-optional policies, striving to get into college while in foster care and homeless. We hear a lot about the efforts of these elite schools to attract diverse student bodies and about debates around the best way to assemble a class. What these conversations overlook is the hope these tests offer students who are in difficult situations.

For many of us, standardized tests provided our one shot to prove our potential, despite the obstacles in our lives or the untidy pasts we had. We found solace in the objectivity of a hard number and a process that — unlike many things in our lives — we could control. I will always feel tenderness toward the Scantron sheets that unlocked higher education and a better life.

Growing up, I fantasized about escaping the chaos of my family for the peace of a grassy quad. Both my parents had mental health issues. My adolescence was its own mess. Over two years I took a dozen psychiatric drugs while attending four different high school programs. At 14, I was sent to a locked facility where my education consisted of work sheets and reading aloud in an on-site classroom. In a life skills class, we learned how to get our G.E.D.s. My college dreams began to seem like delusions.

Then one afternoon a staff member handed me a library copy of “Barron’s Guide to the ACT .” I leafed through the onionskin pages and felt a thunderclap of possibility. I couldn’t go to the bathroom without permission, let alone take Advanced Placement Latin or play water polo or do something else that would impress elite colleges. But I could teach myself the years of math I’d missed while switching schools and improve my life in this one specific way.

After nine months in the institution, I entered foster care. I started my sophomore year at yet another high school, only to have my foster parents shuffle my course load at midyear, when they decided Advanced Placement classes were bad for me. In part because of academic instability like this, only 3 percent to 4 percent of former foster youth get a four-year college degree.

Later I bounced between friends’ sofas and the back seat of my rusty Corolla, using my new-to-me SAT prep book as a pillow. I had no idea when I’d next shower, but I could crack open practice problems and dip into a meditative trance. For those moments, everything was still, the terror of my daily life softened by the fantasy that my efforts might land me in a dorm room of my own, with endless hot water and an extra-long twin bed.

Standardized tests allowed me to look forward, even as every other part of college applications focused on the past. The song and dance of personal statements required me to demonstrate all the obstacles I’d overcome while I was still in the middle of them. When shilling my trauma left me gutted and raw, researching answer elimination strategies was a balm. I could focus on equations and readings, like the scholar I wanted to be, rather than the desperate teenager that I was.

Test-optional policies would have confounded me, but in the 2009-10 admissions cycle, I had to submit my scores; my fellow hopefuls and I were all in this together, slogging through multiple-choice questions until our backs ached and our eyes crossed.

The hope these exams instilled in me wasn’t abstract: It manifested in hundreds of glossy brochures. After I took the PSAT in my junior year, universities that had received my score flooded me with letters urging me to apply. For once, I felt wanted. These marketing materials informed me that the top universities offered generous financial aid that would allow me to attend free. I set my sights higher, despite my guidance counselor’s lack of faith.

When I took the actual SAT, I was ashamed of my score. Had submitting it been optional, I most likely wouldn’t have done it, because I suspected my score was lower than the prep-school applicants I was up against (exactly what Dartmouth found in the analysis that led it to reinstate testing requirements). When you grow up the way I did, it’s difficult to believe that you are ever good enough.

When I got into Harvard, it felt like a miracle splitting my life into a before and after. My exam preparation paid off on campus — it was the only reason I knew geometry or grammar — and it motivated me to tackle new, difficult topics. I majored in computer science, having never written a line of code. Though a career as a software engineer seemed far-fetched, I used my SAT study strategies to prepare for technical interviews (in which you’re given one or more problems to solve) that landed me the stable, lucrative Google job that catapulted me out of financial insecurity.

I’m not the only one who feels affection for these tests. At Harvard, I met other students who saw these exams as the one door they could unlock that opened into a new future. I was lucky that the tests offered me hope all along, that I could cling to the promise that one day I could bubble in a test form and find myself transported into a better life — the one I lead today.

Emi Nietfeld is the author of the memoir “ Acceptance .” Previously, she was a software engineer at Google and Facebook.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Memories — The Importance of Memories in Our Life

The Importance of Memories in Our Life

• Categories: Memories

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Words: 549 |

Published: Apr 8, 2022

Words: 549 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Loftus, E. F. (2005). Planting misinformation in the human mind: A 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory. Learning & Memory, 12(4), 361-366. doi: 10.1101/lm.94705
• Schacter, D. L. (2012). Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory. American Psychologist, 67(8), 603-613. doi: 10.1037/a0029869
• Baddeley, A. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 1-29. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422
• Roediger III, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (2000). Tricks of memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(4), 123-127. doi: 10.1111/1467-8721.00075
• Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107(2), 261-288. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.107.2.261
• Fivush, R., Haden, C. A., & Reese, E. (2006). Remembering, recounting, and reminiscing: The development of autobiographical memory in social context. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 109-138. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070753
• Loftus, E. F. (2017). Memories of things unseen. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 1076-1081. doi: 10.1177/1745691617701919
• Rubin, D. C., Schrauf, R. W., & Greenberg, D. L. (2003). Belief and recollection of autobiographical memories. Memory & Cognition, 31(6), 887-901. doi: 10.3758/BF03195807
• Sharot, T. (2011). The optimism bias: A tour of the irrationally positive brain. Vintage.
• Schacter, D. L. (2012). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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