Amratha Rao - Week 13 - Past vs Future
Week 13: Past vs. Future - 3/23 [7:49 PM]
Memories and nostalgia play huge roles in our daily lives. It’s what gets us through the day and onto the next, allowing us to build off of what we’ve learned and enables us to retain what we are about to learn.
Has it ever occurred to any of you that in less than 4 months, the only recollection of our English class, classmates, and times as juniors will only be through our memories? Everything we learned and the feeling of sheer panic before every timed write will all be squeezed down to just a sheer thought or feeling. In less than two years our time at American and our time with the rest of our fellow juniors will also be summarized into a vague experience, overshadowed by the next. We most likely will never see all 700 of us, or the Class of 2023, once we graduate.
Our memories are what allow us to hold on to the past and cherish it, even when it's physically impossible to do so. Our memory is what carries our past and history. We learn from our mistakes and build off of what we already know. Our character and personalities are heavily shaped by the years of mishaps and achievements that create memorable experiences we learn from today.
Life is a vast experience and the good news is, we’ll make more memories along the way. But the most important lesson to take away from our memories is to never forget or stop celebrating our past.
Hey Amratha, that just made me feel a huge sense of littleness. Growing up, I always believed that me as an individual must be an important attribute to society, and that the world would somehow be very different if I was not there. I even went to the length of believing how there is a possibility that I might be the only real person in the world (this very dumb idea, as I later realized, is a form of solipsism). However, as I grew older, I realized that this idea is far from the case, especially from online posts that I read that are very similar to these. To face the hard truth, we really are just a speck of sand in the great desert of humanity.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is a terrifying thought to think about how inherently impermanent all of our current experiences are, and difficult as it may be I will miss my dear AP English 11. Even more terrifying is the thought of being over with American (which I will not miss nearly as much) and being in the big bad world. The fact that I will probably remember this for the rest of my life is certainly a weird thing to think about and a testament to how fantastical the concept of memory is to the human brain. I will probably remember POAS or messing around with my table long after graduation and cherish it ever more.
ReplyDeleteHey Amratha, it is crazy to imagine how one day we will all be adults and be able to look back on these pivotal times as just vague parts of our memories. While POAS is currently a huge part of my life, which I’m sad to admit, when I get older, it would just be a small part of the many more events and obstacles I will experience and later on be able to look back on, something I am quite happy about. This also makes me sad in a way where all that is happening right now will eventually just be less relevant memories and I might even forget some of these good times. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAmratha, this post was definitely a reality check for me. It is crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks Ms. Benedetti’s 3rd period AP English class will be over and all of us will never be in the same room again. This made me also think about senior year and how we all will be going our separate ways and never see each other again, except for our personal friend groups. Thinking about this definitely makes value the power of memories and comfort they will hopefully bring me once I head off to college.
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha, whenever I think about heading off to college, I will get sad because all of the people I have become friends with at school will probably mostly fade away from my life as we all go to college. Although there will be many new friends as we move onto our next stage of life, I am really glad that we are able to have memories of the past so that all of the time spent together with the people we love is preserved in our brains.
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ReplyDeleteHi Amartha! The thought of the present and my current realities becoming a memory of the past to look back upon has always been terrifying to me. There are some things in life that I wish could stay forever, but sadly nothing works like that. However, I feel assured by the possibilities of better things to come and more wonderful memories to be made. The idea that everything I face now will become a memory later really helps put my current struggles in perspective and make them seem like less daunting issues. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha! This post really made me think of just how close we are to becoming seniors and eventually going to college. It will make me sad to think of leaving friends behind and parting our own separate ways. While high school has been a wild ride so far, there are memories that I will definitely look back on fondly, including from our APENG class. It really interesting and kind of wild to think that everything we continue to face will eventually become memories of the past. While there are things we forget, I am grateful for the fact that we can still remember good memories and count on nostalgia to look back at the good old times when we grow older. I hope to continue making good memories and reflecting on my past to keep moving forward!
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha, the concept of memories is quite broad. I relate to many of the claims you made in your blog and would like to say that the memories we all have are also unique to one another. They might be similar but never truly the same. It is the perspective that changes it. From my perspective, I believe that this was a moving blog I will remember but to you, it may be just another blog you finished for the assignment. In the end, the memories created are not only special but unique as well.
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