Sensing Memories

DCHS Volleyball Team (you'll read why later)

Have you ever had a moment where you are just taken back? Where, BAM, you are just hit with a memory and you take a second to relive it? I love when this happens, when my senses launch me into nostalgia. This happened recently and it got me thinking about how all these different memories are connected to my senses and it's interesting to see which different sense will bring up which different memory. The recent encounter was with my sense of taste. I had Berry Kix, which I haven't had since I was a kid. I used to get this cereal all the time! It was the best and I was sad when they stopped making it and that's why when I saw it in the store, I snatched it up before any other sticky fingered child could get to it. It's not as sweet as I remember but it definitely brought me back.

I was instantly transported to my kitchen table in my childhood house. I was in shorts (because it was always summer there in my mind) with my bony legs tucked up under me and milk dripping down my chin since I was shoveling it in faster than necessary, waiting for my parents to get up. Oh man, those were the days, when I all I had to worry about was putting my bowl away when I was done. I know a simple box of cereal shouldn't get me all sappy but I love how our memories can be so vivid for such insignificant moments. Like how every time I see a Tiki-Torch I remember the porch my dad built in our backyard and eating dinner on it in the summer with the torches blazing or how every time I hear Songbird by Kenny G it's 4am, I'm 5, and I'm rolling my eyes at my Grandpa desperately asking him why my mother has to blast this song every time we get ready for the day?

The best memories though are the ones connected to smell. Why is this? It is explained pretty well here, but the gist of it is that our sense of smell has a direct neural connection to our hippocampus, where our long-term memories are created. This is why every time I smell Eternity by Calvin Klein perfume I am 7 years old again, helping my Grandma take off her boots after a long day of work because she always wore that perfume. It's uncanny though, this smell envelopes my brain and instantly everything is Grandma. I love it! There is no better memory than the ones connected to smell. I love the smell of Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon because it reminds of 8th grade or the smell of tomato sauce because it reminds me of my Grandpa's amazing food or the smell of the leather on a volleyball because I am at practice drenched in sweat but filled with energy because I'm playing with my best friends and they're good at what they do.

Anyway, I'm just rambling on about random memories but it's all to say that I think memories are such an amazing, fun gift from God and I like how they pop up out of nowhere and make your day. :) If you feel like it, take a minute to see how your senses and memories are connected.

Me and my Grandparents mentioned.