Ah memories, something so real and yet so intangible at the same time, and at least for me, ephemeral too.
I never have been quite good at remembering things. Names, dates, deadlines, facts, ideas, all seem to slip from my grasp the moment I loosen my grip on them. Naturally, this has caused me trouble on many occasions, but thankfully, I have a wonderful group of people around me, who often coincidentally bring up something that I forgot right when I need to remember it. Having people who have your back is a wonderful thing.
But I digress. Memories are a scary thing, as they can alter our perceptions of reality and change what we believe happened in the past without our awareness. In fact, with the power of the internet at our hands, optimistic estimates put the accuracy of memory at 95%. Imagine that, at least 5% of what you know about yourself... isn't true!
As scary as memories are, at least they give you a sense of self. What is far more terrifying than memories is losing them. Once you know someone long enough and close enough, it almost seems to seem like they know more about you than you know about you. People pull out stories about me in my younger days that I have no recollection of, but sound like fiascos I would most certainly have been involved in, so I just don't question it and assume they are talking about something that actually happened.
What I just mentioned was merely a simple example, what happens when you start forgetting your childhood, your hometown, your old friends, or even your family. Are you... still you? Memories form our personalities and dictate our actions, so would someone still be the same person without those key facets of their being? Even more relevant is the application of this idea to our daily lives. Everyone constantly forgets things that happened in the past, one thing at a time. Could that possibly tie into why many people have trouble answering the question "Who am I"? Perhaps the reason it is so difficult to come close to one's being is that one's being is never quite the same as when they first recalled themselves in the search of their being.
Memories are at once some of our most precious possessions, yet at the same time, the valuables we part with most easily and most commonly.