Sunday, March 23, 2014

Childhood Memories




As I hear a song on the radio or see a familiar place, years of related memories come rushing to me. I am overwhelmed by my own thoughts. I reminisce on who I was. Alluding to the cliché, "being defined by your past",  I now see the irony in that statement. It has been said that the past defines the individual. As Sedaris remarks, each person had the same “verbs” but just different nouns. Thus, no matter how different a person's circumstances were everyone essentially follows the same "path".  Sedaris is so overwhelmed by the fantastical nature of his partner’s childhood that he wishes to adopt it as his own. By doing this, he hopes to replace what he considers his monotonous childhood, with one filled with excitement. However, a person’s childhood is inherently different or "personal"and largely influences their opinion about themselves. Since time is constantly progressing there is no way to validate the emotions associated with the event. This is the beauty of the past; it is dependent on how a person wants to remember it, and, herein lies the irony in Sedaris's piece. The pursuit of seeking comfort in someone else's past is futile. Instead, he should cherish his own unique past. In the end, the past is just a person’s perception of themselves. 

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