“I am impossible to forget but hard to remember.” ~Elizabethtown

Memories. It’s astounding what the human mind remembers and what it forgets over time. What makes us catalog every minute detail of an event while other experiences we can not begin to recall specifics? This must be one of the great mysteries to which scientists are working to uncover an answer. But will we ever truly be able to fully understand the processes of the mind and memory? And if we are able to ascertain such answers, what then? Would we be able to further manipulate individual’s memories? Allow them to remember some parts of an event while erasing other aspects? Or would such a discovery simply be used in a pure science form where the only implication is the rewriting of textbooks?

It is safe to assume that every person has individuals they wish they could extract from their memory. However, what we often forget until it is too late is once you allow someone to enter your life they will never leave you. They will remain burned into your subconscious forever particularly if you share a meaningful experience with such a person. The first time wanting to say/saying/meaning "I love you" to someone. The first awkward/botched kiss. The first time staying up until the early hours of the morning just talking. The first time spending the night with someone. The first time falling asleep in a man’s arms and waking up to see the slight tug of a content smile on his lips.

As of late, I have been plagued with memories of various people and events. There are some memories which I wish I could remember the event without remembering the person and vice versa. Of course, there are those people and event combinations which I wish to play over and over again in my head as they comfort me. They allow me to escape my surroundings and to live in my head for a brief period. Unfortunately, I have little to no control over what memory will drift across my subconscious at a particular moment in time—whether it will be a recollection which will invoke conflicting emotions or a memory which will provide escape. Perhaps, with time, all of our memories will reach a place where they will provide escape.—where we can remember every aspect of an event and/or person without feeling a sharp jerk on our hearts or a negative emotion. Perhaps, in time, we reach a point where we no longer wish to extract people or events from our thoughts. But naturally that begs the question: how much time must pass for that to happen?