You must remember this... or not
Remembering dates is something I do well, too well for my own liking sometimes. I have a pretty good memory for a lot of different things (phone numbers, things I have to do, blah blah), but the ability to recall dates comes in particularly handy sometimes. It's rare for me to miss someone's birthday, for example, which really makes me feel good. (I love birthdays.)
It took me a while to realise that being able to remember dates well goes both ways - that for me, there is a pretty unpleasant side to this. As well as my current friends and family, I remember the birthdays of people I would really rather forget about, remember with a jolt what I was doing for their birthday one, two, five, six years ago. (One person last weekend, another today. More coming up.) And remember that now there's no way I'd even consider it appropriate for me to call them to mark the day. I remember the days and dates of breakups. (*rolls eyes*. on the other hand, I'm glad all those relationships ended!) I remember the details of the week a friend died, by every date and the day of the week. (17th February to the 24th of February.) I'll never forget his birthday, as it's in the same week. (20th of February.)
I remember odd, and neutral things too. Dates of concerts I was in... in primary and high school. (17th November, 17th May... to pick a couple.) The day I started my first paid job (2nd of February - my dad's birthday), the day I started my new job (28th November, two days before Nitro's birthday, and a year and one day from the day I started back in an area at my old job that I hated, hated, hated, and had an interview for a promotion in that place that I didn't want either).
I find the connections between dates of different things interesting too - the paragraph above gives some good examples. I suppose my noticing patterns like this is partly why I love linguistics so much. (To a lesser extent, maths too - although I don't have any particular talent for maths, I just never minded it when I had to do it at school.)
It's weird for me being around forgetful people. Sometimes I wonder if it's more that some people forget because they can't be bothered to remember, or write things down, than they actually REALLY CAN'T remember things. Either because they don't care, or because they know that someone like me will always remember or write it down. I write down a lot of stuff in a little notebook I carry around, so that I don't HAVE to remember it.
Anyway, that's my little piece on the good and the bad of having a good memory. For the less pleasant dates, I try to remember 'you can't think about what you don't want to think about without thinking about it' instead, because it's true. Tune out the bad and focus on the good. :)
It took me a while to realise that being able to remember dates well goes both ways - that for me, there is a pretty unpleasant side to this. As well as my current friends and family, I remember the birthdays of people I would really rather forget about, remember with a jolt what I was doing for their birthday one, two, five, six years ago. (One person last weekend, another today. More coming up.) And remember that now there's no way I'd even consider it appropriate for me to call them to mark the day. I remember the days and dates of breakups. (*rolls eyes*. on the other hand, I'm glad all those relationships ended!) I remember the details of the week a friend died, by every date and the day of the week. (17th February to the 24th of February.) I'll never forget his birthday, as it's in the same week. (20th of February.)
I remember odd, and neutral things too. Dates of concerts I was in... in primary and high school. (17th November, 17th May... to pick a couple.) The day I started my first paid job (2nd of February - my dad's birthday), the day I started my new job (28th November, two days before Nitro's birthday, and a year and one day from the day I started back in an area at my old job that I hated, hated, hated, and had an interview for a promotion in that place that I didn't want either).
I find the connections between dates of different things interesting too - the paragraph above gives some good examples. I suppose my noticing patterns like this is partly why I love linguistics so much. (To a lesser extent, maths too - although I don't have any particular talent for maths, I just never minded it when I had to do it at school.)
It's weird for me being around forgetful people. Sometimes I wonder if it's more that some people forget because they can't be bothered to remember, or write things down, than they actually REALLY CAN'T remember things. Either because they don't care, or because they know that someone like me will always remember or write it down. I write down a lot of stuff in a little notebook I carry around, so that I don't HAVE to remember it.
Anyway, that's my little piece on the good and the bad of having a good memory. For the less pleasant dates, I try to remember 'you can't think about what you don't want to think about without thinking about it' instead, because it's true. Tune out the bad and focus on the good. :)