Memory
When I was in middle school, my language and literature teacher read her memoir essay. It was about an old yellow wooden table from her grandmother.
Sunlight was reflected on a table. It seemed like her grandmother's old table. Everything in the house kept its silence and only pieces of memories and thoughts were swirling around her. Both her grandmother and the table were old enough to tell a bunch of stories. A lot of teas must have had been served on that table. A lot of people must have had met her grandmother. She used to play on the table in the old days. But she had not realized that the table was getting older while she was running around. The sun is reflected on a new table. Unfortunately, there was no one next to the table.
To be honest, I do not remember the name of the teacher who told the story. But her words and voice are still in my mind. I hope she is doing well at school or she must be retired already. I was very pleased to take her courses and her essays were triggering me to try writing.
By the way, staying in someone’s mind with great motivation and inspiration is not that easy. Either insufficient free memory or our willpower limits the action.
Our memory is always expanding with our new experiences. When new books, songs, films are added, the old library has to be extended or changed. It reallocates space when fresh things happen or old memories are cleared from our brain.
Even the happiest particular pieces can be worn and gradually erased unless we recall those parts. In short, entropy increases as time passes. However, the stronger feeling the memory contains, the slower the clearing process takes place. First things are very special examples of our core memories, so they are kept in the middle of our library, but supportive parts are often replaced or modified.
Some people use the same idea to increase their learning and memorizing ability. Instead of palely reading a couple of pages, it is better to make some appealing or just any kind of feeling during the reading. Some new word memorizing books are written as a collection of anecdotes.
Mimicking details can help too. Because it involves old memories as a related subject and sticks new information to the old base. For instance, the participants of the world memory championships use short storytelling techniques to memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time.
All in all, there is an entirely different universe in our heads. It is great for them if they are kept in there, like my teacher. I am very proud of her for the great essay, extraordinary impression, and will to teach us writing.
