"As a matter of fact...No, go get some thread...(10-15minutes elapse)...OK...Here...I'm going to tie this around your finger so you'll remember....I swear, you would forget your own head if it wasn't attached..."
And that, ironically, is one of the most defining memories of which I hold high within my mind...My mother used to say that to me almost everyday when I was in 1st-grade...I'd have a permission slip to hand in, or a signed test to give my teacher, but I forgot...I always forgot...Then the teacher would call home saying she never got the slip, or was checkin to see if they saw my test....It got so bad, that the teacher started tying string around my finger, for memory's sake....She only did that cuz she first tried pinning letters/tests/etc to my shirt, but I'd take them off due to discomfort, and forget to deliver them to my parents.....
Growing up, I don't recall having any memory problems, though that may seem comedic or silly irony to some, that really does bother me...I mean, I only remember maybe one or two days, at random retrospect, from each year of my life....And maybe recall only a few more if someone else were to remind me of them.....It is only recently, within the past year or two, that my ability to retain certain information has been diminished....As a youth, it was no problem remembering a bunch of people in a group....It was no problem remembering the tasks of the week and, much more, even the month...My memory used to be nearly perfect...I remember that...You could tell me something, and I'd remember it, no matter what...I'd know what a person was wearing and saying (word for word), if you told me what day that was....
But now...hmph...Don't even bother with a week, I can't even remember the things that I'm to do within a day or, much less, an hour...My perception of time has become altered, I can't remember the feeling of the time that passed, I can just barely remember the events...So I judge by an estimate of how long it should take for those events to take place....It's so bad that I can actually FEEL my brain working as I try to remember something....
I have come to the point where, less and less, I direct my actions of the day through memory...Now it has gone so far that I must use a combination of conditioning and logic to guide me through the course of my day...I do not find my keys because I remember where I put them...NO, I think of the most logical place that I would lay them so that the Future-Me can find them since I know that the Future-Me would never remember....Simply re-tracing my steps are none but actions made in vain....My reality is not so much based upon things I can recall as much as it is on environment/situation and the logical and possible causes of those outcomes....
I live the moment because I cannot remember the past...and in living the moment, I work to make my future easier, for in that future, I will barely remember that time's "Past", this time's "Now"....
Father: (Picking up phone) Hello?
Christopher: Hi
Father: Hi
Christopher: I got the package. The shorts fit but--
Father: But you didn't try on the wrestling pads yet.
Christopher: Yeah. Wow, how'd you know?
Father: Christopher...I called about 10 minutes ago and asked you and you told me about that and your test and stuff.
Christopher: You for real?
Father: Yes..heheh..You goin' senile on me? We hung up a little after 6, it's 6:12 now
Christopher: Hmph...don't remember....
That was about 2 weeks ago...Tying fingers in 1st-grade...To phantom phonecalls in college....I guess some things never change, huh?....