We are constantly trying to tell ourselves or others that we are different or special or unique. And sometimes that's a hard concept to believe. I know I often feel very "ordinary." It's one of the reasons we idolize celebrities that aren't so normal or dig back into our ancestry or heritage to find something exciting about our families.
There is one thing that every single person on earth has that is unique to them though. It's called a past. It's like a fingerprint that is forever changing. Even identical twins with the same family and friends have had their own conversations, activities, and experiences, even if they only lasted a second. Not one of us goes through life the exact same way.
We, as a society, are always categorizing people by interest or race or family but everyone is a little bit different and it's something we should treasure about the world I think.
This week I read the book Feed by M.T. Anderson, a dystopian novel about future people connecting their brains to "feeds" or computers. As one malfunctions, a girl loses an entire year of her memory. As she vents to her boyfriend, she says, "Who are we, if we don't have a past?" And really...who? Each day, we may be moving toward death, but we are also growing, right up until the end I think. That's why I find conditions such as amnesia, dementia, and alzheimer's so heartbreaking. They aren't just losing memories of others, but a part of themselves.
There are always quotes about "living in the present" and I don't disagree at all, but when I sit down and think about it, it's so important to take in as much of the past as possible, even the hard parts. You are special. You are different. Unique. But it's those hard events you went through that made you that way. Each place in your life is like another line added to the fingerprint of you.
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