When I was a kid, one of the things that frustrated me the most was when I would run to say something to my mom and then promptly forget what it was I meant to say.
My mother — in her Infinite Wisdom —would turn to me and say "oh well, it must not have been important then!"
That was the part that actually frustrated me the most, because in my youthful enthusiasm I invariably thought that whatever it was I had to relay was extremely important!
I look back on those incidents from my current vantage point of multiple decades later and I realize that I have always had some serious potholes in my brain. That is to say, my memory — particularly in the short term — is a pretty dodgy place.
The funny thing is that I can tell you about something that happened 25 years ago in great detail... far above and beyond what a reasonable person could be expected to and yet I have most likely forgotten what you told me 5 minutes ago.
This was definitely not a "talent" that was of much use when I was at University or even when I was in grade school and high school!
I recognized that I had a problem at a relatively young age, and started to keep lists — even as a teenager — because I knew there were lots of things I "had to" remember, but my natural memory was not going to be of any help in that respect.
I even threw money at "brain training" courses and workshops that supposedly were designed to improve memory but they never made any difference, so I always returned to writing lists. Which works fine as long as I remember where the list is and to bring it with me if I need to remember things when I'm somewhere else!
Some friends would even refer to me as the "absent-minded professor," although I would hardly call myself absent-minded and I am definitely not a professor! I just have singularly poor short-term memory. Somebody says something — even something important —and it goes straight in one ear and out the other without any of it sticking on the way through.
Human beings are relatively adaptable and amazing creatures, and I am grateful that I have managed to chart a path through life with my lists... without the majority of the world detecting that I am somehow "defective," in some way.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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2026.04.28 01:06 PST
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