Memory is defined as the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. A lot of our memories change over our life because we revise and re-evaluate them. This is stated in Salvador Dali's quote, "The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant." Salvador Dali's quote can also tell us to look into our own memories and try to see the truth in these memories, and not the parts of the memories that have changed over time.
One of my first important memories of my life, I don't actually remember. When I was born, I was taken straight from my mother to the NICU of the hospital. I was very blue and had trouble breathing. What was happening to me was that I had pneumonia. I was put into an oxygen tent with seventy percent oxygen to keep my breathing steady. Because of this need for my medical care to keep me alive, my mother didn't get to hold me until I was four days old. These events of the first four days of my life could have easily affected my life greatly. In fact, I could have died and wouldn't have been here to write this paper today. This memory is an example of a very important memory in my life that I don't know about myself because of my young age. Memories, such as this childhood memory, can be some of the most important memories in our lives but some of these memories we can only learn by depending on others to tell us about them.
One memory I do actually remember myself is that of a basketball game. A couple of years ago, I played some mini-basketball at my friend Gabe's house. Gabe and I won three out of three out of the five games that we played against Caleb and Brad. The next day at school, Brad told Gabe and I that, in fact, Caleb and Brad had won three out of the five games. This is a great example of a memory that I share with someone else, but have a differing opinion on how the memory happened.
