ISSUES | A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH LASummer2017 | Page 18

Memories
“Do you remember?” That phrase is such a common one people pass around. “Did you
remember the homework?” “Do you remember that time when we did something so embarrassing
in class?” “Do you remember when I first met you?” Memories are so significant in our lives, aren’t
they? They are things I hold onto all the time – but what about those memories that are bad?
When do we choose to bury those memories? Why do the things we find so important at one
point in time become the things we try to forget the most?
Well, let’s begin with happy memories, those are the best ones after all; I can say for myself
that I have had many happy memories in the past few years. Sometimes I remember some dumb
joke I heard or when my friend did something that made me cringe to the point of no return;
these can easily bring a smile to my face at any time of the day. When I get to remember the many
adventures my friends and I had, it fills me with happiness as well. There were times when we
climbed onto the roofs of malls feeling the rush of adrenaline through our veins and those
occasions where we were up all night playing computer games with every hour drawing on our
eyelids like eyeshadow. Even fracturing my ankle was a good memory because of all the people
that came to look out for me in those disabling moments. Yes, those were good memories,
memories I choose to store away and to recall forever.
Not all memories are pleasant though – sometimes I remember the times when my
grandfather was still alive or when I could do childish things and not be judged about it; these
memories let me look back, way back, to times in the past where life seemed simpler, and those
memories cause me to wonder “what on earth happened to my childhood?” Sometimes I wish I
could relive my memories, to walk in the footsteps of my past and to enjoy those moments once
again, giving myself a chance to see what I could learn from the past and where it has brought me.
However, the pain of these memories, the fragments of my grandfather, has become my
inheritance, the only thing that keeps him resonating in my mind. Those memories keep him alive.
The worst memories are of fights and breakups. Those memories have never left my head,