Reminisce in your long-term memory; it could define who you are.

At last, I can identify that I have experienced a reminiscence bump! What is it about certain events or periods in one's life that stands out in the memory bank brighter and more vivid than what was done last week, last month or last year? One theory of the ‘Reminiscence Bump’; the 'life script account' describes that during early adolescence, one starts to make essential decisions that have influencing experiences on their identity.

There was a remarkable period in my adolescence where I could travel alone to my ancestorial homeland. At the time, I was a young-er person of the 80s, living and breathing the shift in pop culture and global attitudes. The experience of being amongst this exciting period of change, the overarching sense of belonging, of being with 'my people' is what I believe shaped my recollected memories. The 'My/I' memory reconstruction supports the context that it’s these exciting events that contributed to shaping the identity of my 'self.'

Digging a little deeper, an interesting abstract by Rathbone, Moulin and Conway: Self-Cantered Memories: The Reminiscence Bump and the Self (2008) states that 'when a new self-image is formed, it is associated with the encoding of memories that are relevant to that self and that remain highly accessible to the 'rememberer' later in life.' Have my experiences roaming the countryside in communist-led Hungary in the 80s instilled the foundations of who I am today? Of understanding the socio-economic challenges, the values of family and the friendships based on cultural 'same-ness?' And while I try to avoid labelling, I'm secretly pleased that there is a scientific fact to this 'why' question – now at least I can understand why I'm drawn to these memories and why they make me so happy.

#observation #adolescence #shapingidentity #happymemories #reminiscencebump #magyarorszag #budapestinthe80s