Thursday, September 27, 2007

Michael Pearson, "Researching Your Own Life" (pg45)

"What I didn't realize until I was far into the story was that...my memory was stimulated by my research into my own past, that the story of the past came alive for me as I engaged in the adventure of going back, of once again searching for what had seemingly been lost" (Pearson 47).

I've heard a lot of stuff just like this from my creative writing courses--that once you start the process of delving into your own memory, things come to you out of the blue. It's weird, actually, I've noticed a similar thing this semester. When I began working on my autobiography, an image of my brother and me running around and catching fireflies in the expansive back yard of our great aunt and uncle's house just sort of popped into my head. I remember it clearly, but it had just slipped away from me up until that point. So, because I had a newly found memory to work with, the work in my childhood essay was exciting--fresh. It felt like experiencing the magic all over again. Similarly, through talking to my mother, I was able to make connections between this vacation to West Virginia and Ohio to a really well-defined memory I still have--that of Hurricane Andrew. I just love how all of these things seem to play together in the mind.

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