Who are YOU?
By Hailey Lundeen
Have you ever wondered what makes you essentially you? Your biological parents made you yes, your age is you yes, but your memories are key to what makes you-you. We all have this thing called you-ness and this is what makes everyone different and unique in our own way.
You-ness according to Julia Shaw, the author of the book The Memory Illusion , you-ness is made up of primarily episodic memories. Episodic memories are memories stored in the hippocampus and this is a portion of our brain, and this consists of specific events in your life (Conway, 2009). Episodic memories are also stored within the category of being a long-term memory, and this means that it is a long-lasting memory. You-ness memories are auto-biographical memories, and they are memories only one individual understands fully because they have experienced it, felt it, saw it, and so on. This can be your first kiss, a relative’s graduation, having class with that super funny professor, or even something as simple such as going out to that sushi place with your friend for the first time. Nobody else will be able to recall your memory of your first kiss, because your perceptions were involved. It’s your brain, and your memory.
Could you imagine waking up from a bad car accident and not being able to recall anything? Not being able to remember how you met your boyfriend/girlfriend? Not being able to remember any of your autobiographical memories, such as the feeling you got when you walked across the stage in High School to grab your diploma in front of everyone. When you see the image above and then compare it to how your high school graduation looked or the color of your cap and gown, and how you felt, you are recalling from your episodic memory and your auto-biographical memory that works with your you-ness. The ongoing experiences we encounter make us who we are, and how we learn from things based on past experiences. It is not just one or two memories its all of them combined.
You-ness does not typically fluctuate, and it is not based on your personality, but it is based on your autobiographical memory. But these can even be due to false memory, and its common. False memory is when think you did something and believing that the memory is real when it could be in fact not real (Holland, 2019). An example of this could be believing that the first time you were grounded was because you didn’t do the dishes, but the real reason was because you disrespected you mom.
Imagine not being able to recall anything; your you-ness would be gone. Can you imagine how those with Alzheimer’s feel? They wake up starting a day, and barely know what day it is, or who their relatives are. I feel sympathetic for those who suffer Alzheimer’s disease because they did not only lose their memories, but they lost their you-ness. if you know someone who is suffering from memory loss of any type, I recommend encouraging them or helping them reach out to their primary care doctor for support.
Take some time to consider how much your memories, both good and bad, piece together who you are. Feel grateful for having your memories, even if you have a few embarrassing ones, that’s okay, something to laugh about 20 years down the road! Always take advantage of your experiences to make vivid episodic memories and live your life to the fullest.
References
Cherry, K. (2020, March 6). How Episodic Memory Helps You Remember Events. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-episodic-memory-2795173#:~:text=Episodic%20memory%20is%20a%20category,all%20examples%20of%20episodic%20memories.
Conway, M. A. (2009). Episodic Memories. Neuropsychologia, 41(11), 2305-2313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.02.003
Holland, K. (2019, April 23). False Memory: What You Need to Know. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/false-memory#:%7E:text=A%20false%20memory%20is%20a,and%20find%20you%20didn’t.
Shaw, J. (2016). The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the science of False Memory. London: Random House Books