FORGETTING is inevitable. It happens, and it often happens in crucial moments.
We forgot our laptops when we needed to present something, our one-month-old cellphone when we were about to make an important call, our passport when we were to show our documents at the airport counter, or even our wallet when we were about to pay the taxi driver.
These moments are inevitable. We blame ourselves for being careless, and sometimes we are too harsh to ourselves to say we’re stupid.
But then again, this happens. It is not always a perfect moment. It isn’t always bad, either. Sometimes, we only need to balance between perfection and imperfection. As they say, imperfection is perfect, and others regard it as the perfection of imperfection.
So, why do we forget?
Aside from all the neurological terms we cannot fully understand, dysfunction due to aging, stress, or disease can lead to forgetfulness.
If information is not properly processed, it may never be encoded in long-term memory. Interferences include older memories that obstruct new information and new information that overwrites earlier memories when recalled.
There are moments when we desire to forget something or someone, but the memories stay. The more we convince ourselves to forget, the more our memories haunt us.
People who have made a significant impact on our lives are difficult to forget. They live in our memories. We do not forget the people who made us important and strong.
Our pains and traumatic experiences, for example, are those that we’d like to forget. We keep telling ourselves to forget them, yet when we try, we keep thinking about them. The deeper the impact, the more impossible it is to forget.
Significant historical events that either crushed humanity or benefitted the majority will be remembered forever. Perhaps because people keep sharing their stories. They remind us of what has to be forgiven and who must accept responsibility.
For couples, forgetting important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, and events leads to falling out. You’re lucky if your partner doesn’t get mad or forgive you readily. But the fact that you have forgotten is an indicator that you never paid attention to your partner’s milestones.
Students and employees forget about deadlines. Some are accidental, but most of the time it’s intentional. They never run out of excuses.
Bosses and managers forget to recognize their teams' contributions. They are too preoccupied to get things done and they forget who is doing them all.
Politicians consistently forget about their campaign promises. People understand that by heart, yet they still want to believe it.
We forget some persons and events in our lives. They are not stored properly in our memory, so they never become a memory in the first place. However, simply forgetting them does not imply that they do not matter.
So, if you want to be remembered and not forgotten, do extraordinary things. Leave a lasting and positive impact on others. People will remember the way you made them feel. Yes, they will remember how you valued them or ignored them.
Leave good memories. That’s the only thing that remains forever.
