Memories as a Baby

Most psychologists agree that adults don’t have any memories of their childhood before the age of 3, a phenomenon known as childhood amnesia. But for some mystifying reason, I vividly remember two-year-old me walking through the chilly Baltimore air in a tiny zebra onesie. 

Halloween was unlike any other night-- the excitement was palpable and the streets were alive. And just like the beating pulse of the city, my veins yearned for the sweet burst of sugar to consume me. My mother handed me and my sister a cheap dollar tree jack-o-lantern pail, and we were off, scurring for any house with light. House after house, neighbor after neighbor, as my supply began to grow so did my desire to consume. Just as the sun was beginning to set, and my toddler's arms were getting tired from carrying the candy, my mom proposed that we take a few photos. 

I sat on the front steps of a house, fingers squirming and heart racing to get to the next house. My eyes gleamed with so much excitement that they looked half-closed. After what seemed like a millennium, I heard the familiar click of a canon camera and darted away in search of more candy. 

As fun as the night was, these memories simply aren’t true; children often make up false memories of their early childhood from their parent's stories of photographs. It’s fascinating yet terrifying that our brains will go to extreme lengths to make fake memories; the true details of that day will forever be lost in the past – a dissipating recollection captured within a photo.