Twinn Swan

Memories are, by their very nature, incomplete. Even if and when we’ve safely stored these memories, they’re not necessarily safe from alteration. When these memories been ‘left alone’ for too long, they can decay like an old building. The neural connections that created that memory can disappear or grow weak, therefore erasing part or all of your memory of what happened, why it happened and if it even happened at all.

Retrieving and continual reiteration of the memory is not useful either for it is highly likely that the memory will be changed or altered through that process. Whenever we retrieve a memory of something that happened, we are reconstructing the event or episode. In revisiting old memories, we end up invariably reshaping them into new memories. In doing so, the earlier version of the memory that we retrieved is gone. We have officially overwritten over the old memory and updated it with new information and insights.

Due to this natural process, the new memory can deviate significantly from the original. Since episodic memories are vulnerable to outside influences each time we revisit them, new information easily makes its way into old memories thereby altering them forever.

While writing something down allows you to strengthen the memory for the details you chose to write about, this process can prevent you from remembering the details that were excluded. Your memory may be right or it may be faulty and full of holes.

The truth is our memories have been designed to be this way for a reason. For the past is not yet over and the future is still a mystery. With each breath I take, I know that I am capable of rewriting the past and thereby changing and taking charge of my future.