I remember it, so it must have happened, right?

Memory can best be described as the persistence of learning over time through active encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. Memories are things we hold dear to us and are things we cannot possibly forget: the good, the bad, the crazy, etc. But can we truly recall all of our “memories?” The answer to this question is no; even the first memory we can think of may not actually be from our personal memory storage systems. Someone might have told us about it. These memories are called False Memories.

When I was younger, around the age of 5, my parents took me to Disney World for the first time. We rode all sorts of different rides at all the different parks, but my favorite ride was Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom. The ride tells a tale of Brier Rabbit getting chased by Brier Fox and Brier Bear because Briar Rabbit decides to run away form home. Every time I go on that ride, the song “Zip-a-dee Doo-da” always gets stuck in my head. It’s a very catchy song. Anyway, the best part of that ride is the very high fall into the brier patch. There are always moments of suspense slowly riding up to the top. To this day, Splash Mountain is still my favorite ride in all of Disney World.

Even though I thought I was recalling this from my own personal memory storage system, I might also have been remembering my parents telling me about my experience at Splash Mountain back then. It is impossible to ever know for sure. Although my parents could be telling me the wrong thing, they are my parents, so I do not think they would do that. Whether I am recalling the actual memory or whether I am recalling my parents telling me about the experience, I am happy either way to know of this memory somehow.

2 thoughts on “I remember it, so it must have happened, right?

  1. Mary Grace Hill

    Very interesting post Michael. I too loved Splash Mountain when I was five. Maybe we were at Disney World at the same time! The song got stuck in my head too. It is interesting to think about it just being a memory and not really happening. But as long as the memory is a good one there is no worries! Hope you get to experience Splash Mountain again soon.

  2. Stephanie Tara Unger

    It is so interesting you wrote about this because I did not see this until after I published mine and my story is so similar! When I went to Disney World, I went and saw a 3-D movie and the dog in the movie sneezed at the end and real water came out. I swore for the longest time that I remembered that whole moment perfectly, detail for detail on my own. After learning about all of this in psychology, it is so weird to think I could only be remembering it from my parents telling me. It makes me wonder about so many things in my childhood and whether I actually remember is physically occurring. It is so easy to relate to your story and I find it so interesting at how our memory actually works!

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