Where's My Voice?
The other day, while surfing Nostalgic Win, I found an entry for Flight of the Navigator: a live-action Disney movie from the eighties about a space ship. In my youth, this had been one of my favourite movies. We had taped it off the Disney channel onto a VHS and I watched that thing until it practically fell apart. As soon as I saw the trailer (compliments of YouTube), I was instantly reminded of all these mundane stimuli that I experienced as a little girl. I remember the old carpet in our our house. I remember the Fisher Price Popcorn Popper that I used to pretend to mow the lawn inside the house. I remembered physically being shorter than my parents; the layout of their bedroom, and being too small to see the top of my father's dresser. Memories for me are usually VISUAL; they are really KINESTHETIC, as was the case here... and when I have AUDITORY memories, they barely register as memories at all. It's more similar to Deja Vu when I have an AUDITORY recollection.
This brought up an interesting idea for me. As a psychologist, I believe that we don't truly FORGET information. Rather, there is some information that we can consciously access, and some information which requires the use of an ACTIVATOR to bring up. It's like all the information we effectively process is locked into a Memory Box. Some boxes we HAVE the keys for, and for other boxes, we must be GIVEN the keys that unlock them. It occurred to me that I don't remember what my voice sounded like before puberty. Even when I think back to myself as a little girl, I can't hear my voice. I listen to my own voice for upwards of nine years before it changed, and I can't even remember what it sounded like! It must be in there SOMEWHERE. In the back of my mind, in one of the boxes with no key, is my voice... I just have to find a way to unlock it.
This brought up an interesting idea for me. As a psychologist, I believe that we don't truly FORGET information. Rather, there is some information that we can consciously access, and some information which requires the use of an ACTIVATOR to bring up. It's like all the information we effectively process is locked into a Memory Box. Some boxes we HAVE the keys for, and for other boxes, we must be GIVEN the keys that unlock them. It occurred to me that I don't remember what my voice sounded like before puberty. Even when I think back to myself as a little girl, I can't hear my voice. I listen to my own voice for upwards of nine years before it changed, and I can't even remember what it sounded like! It must be in there SOMEWHERE. In the back of my mind, in one of the boxes with no key, is my voice... I just have to find a way to unlock it.